License distribution method

ABSTRACT

A license distribution system and a license distribution method for selling/purchasing a license securely are provided. When a purchase request of a license for viewing digital contents is received via a network from a client terminal, a reception window terminal of a storefront server receives the purchase request of a license and executes a process of settling accounts at a first stage. Then, a proof of purchase is issued and the license is sent in exchange for the proof of purchase. Accordingly, no mistake is made in acquiring money at the time of selling the license, and further a table and a process for checking whether charging is made or not are not necessary for a license selling process, thus an operational process and a process program can be simplified and a memory can be used effectively. A license for a subscription commodity and/or a package commodity can be purchased and/or sold as well.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system and license and contentsprovision method for enabling digital contents to be suitablydistributed and viewed by managing and correctly providing license forviewing digital contents data and contents.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Conventionally, digital contents made of digital data have a property inwhich quality is not deteriorated even if data are copied repetitively.Therefore, copyright infringement, in which the digital contents arecopied and/or reused without permission, should be prevented in servicesusing digital contents.

In regard to this point, the security level of the digital contents canbe improved using improved cryptography. Conventional technology (e.g.Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 11-259574) forpreventing copyright infringement using this cryptography is publiclyknown.

Foregoing conventional technology discloses a method of distributionmanagement of the digital contents and license using the digitalcontents and a condition of using the contents in relation to foregoingcontents. According to this technology, when a request of executing thedigital contents is issued to a digital management system for managingthe digital contents from a user by acquiring a state in which anoperation system function is working in order to view the digitalcontents, a dishonest act of using the digital contents without fee canbe prevented by informing to a license management center, which operatesmonitoring results using centralized management practice, aboutmonitoring an operation of the foregoing digital contents and creatingcharging data of the digital contents and/or “Payperuse” data includingcharter by time and/or charter by number.

However, in a method of distribution management of the contents andlicense of the foregoing conventional technology, the user needs toconnect a network with the license management center for actuallyviewing the digital contents, thus a problem arises in which a devicewhich does not have this function cannot view the contents. Further, inview of the user, since information of using the digital contents isknown to a disinterested party, another problem arises in which privacycannot be protected. Further, still another problem arises in which amethod for handling the license and charging is not considered in theevent that data is lost in telecommunication, or the received contentshave partial omission (a missing page), etc.

Further, a monthly magazine, a weekly magazine, or the other periodicalpublications are found in a field of a publication, and there is apractice of purchasing those periodical publications by monthlycontract, etc. However, conventionally there is no management technologyof purchasing and/or selling the license of an electronic publication byway of monthly contract (i.e. subscription) or package sale by a licensedistribution management method or system using a computer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made in consideration of problems of theforegoing conventional technology. The first object is to provide alicense distribution system and a license distribution method which cansecurely sell and/or purchase license (including a license forsubscription of an electronic publication) or contents.

The second object of the present invention is to provide a licensedistribution system and a license distribution method which can securelyexecute a process of settling accounts for selling and/or purchasinglicense or contents.

The third object of the present invention is to provide a licensedistribution system and a license distribution method which can preventunnecessary data from being accumulated after a license is sold if alicense or contents are sold.

The fourth object of the present invention is to provide a licensedistribution system and a license distribution method which can issue alicense just once to a purchaser of the license when the license issold/purchased.

The fifth object of the present invention is to provide a licensedistribution system and a license distribution method which canstructure a system to various types of businesses for selling and/orpurchasing license and contents.

The sixth object of the present invention is to provide a licensedistribution system and a license distribution method which can manageproficiently a case of selling and/or purchasing a license for anelectronic publication by way of subscription or package sale.

In order to achieve the foregoing objects, the present invention ischaracterized in that, to begin with, if a purchase request of a licensefor viewing digital contents is received via a network from a clientterminal, a reception window terminal of a storefront server receives apurchase request of a license and executes a process of settlingaccounts at the first stage and then a management terminal of astorefront server installed in a back position from the foregoingreception window terminal in view of the side of the client terminalexecutes a process necessary for issuing a license after this receptionwindow terminal executes a process of settling accounts completely.Licenses include ones for viewing digital contents (hereinafter,referred to as a group of commodity contents) sold as a packagecommodity or a subscription commodity grouping two or more commodities.

Second, the present invention is characterized in that, when a processnecessary for issuing a license after settling accounts is executed, aproof of purchase (electric data corresponding to a receipt of a generaltransaction, a return receipt, or a claim check) is created withoutissuing a license directly and sends it to a client terminal and thenthe license is issued by receiving a license issuance request from aclient terminal.

Third, the present invention is characterized in that electric data issent to a client terminal without sending a proof of purchase to aclient terminal immediately when the proof of purchase is created andthen the proof of purchase is sent upon receiving a request of the proofof purchase from the client terminal.

Fourth, the present invention is characterized in that a created proofof purchase is temporarily kept in a box set file without sending aproof of purchase immediately if the proof of purchase is created, andat the same time, electric data for acquiring the proof of purchase issent to a client terminal and then the proof of purchase is sent byreceiving a request of the proof of purchase from the client terminal.At this point, the foregoing electric data for acquiring the proof ofpurchase does not necessarily have to be sent, and according to anothermode, the proof of purchase may be sent to the client terminalimmediately at the time of creating a proof of purchase.

Fifth, the present invention is characterized in that, when a processnecessary for issuing a license of a group of commodity contents isexecuted after a process of settling accounts is executed, a pBox proofof purchase is created corresponding to a package commodity (two or morecommodities are gathered and grouped) or a subscription commodity as anobject of a request of purchasing license and sends it to a clientterminal, then an eBox request is received for requesting an eBox inwhich the pBox is disassembled from the client terminal, a relevant eBoxproof of purchase is created and sent to the client terminal, and alicense is requested by a relevant client terminal.

Sixth, the present invention is characterized in that a box set file iscreated for recording history of a process up to sending to the clientterminal from creating the proof of purchase and necessary data such asits file ID and an ID of the foregoing process of settling accounts areadded to the created box set file each time each process is executed.

Seventh, the present invention is characterized in that a box set fileis created for recording a history of a process up to sending to theclient terminal from creating the proof of purchase, and necessary datasuch as its file ID, an ID of the foregoing process of settlingaccounts, and an ID of the box set into a created box set file is addedor changed each time each process is executed.

Eighth, the present invention is characterized in that, without sendinga pBox proof of purchase immediately when the foregoing pBox proof ofpurchase is created, the foregoing box set file is sent and then the boxset (including the pBox proof of purchase) is sent to the clientterminal by receiving a box set request from the client terminal.

Ninth, the present invention is characterized in that an MPID, which isa common identifier which is a connector so as to manage and link-managea commodity by linking a subscription commodity or a package commoditywith a relevant license commodity, is given to both commodities. In thepresent invention, the pBox proof of purchase corresponds with a receiptof selling a group of two or more commodities, and the eBox proof ofpurchase can be created by disassembling this pBox proof of purchase. Acommodity, which is treated as an object of the eBox proof of purchaseby a link management means having MPID as a connector, can be searchedand acquired in a process of creating the eBox proof of purchase fromthis pBox proof of purchase. Further, plural MPIDs each of which isdifferent to each other can be attached to license commodities. This isbecause one commodity has plural aspects (features) for each commodity,and is contained in plural categories or attributes for each aspect.Then, a license commodity to which plural MPIDs are attached can beincluded in plural subscription commodities or a group of packagecommodities which are different to each other.

Tenth, the present invention is characterized in that eBox/pBox typedata is included in the proof of purchase to discriminate whether theproof of purchase is a subscription commodity or package commodity or alicense commodity and a process of creating the proof of purchase isselected based on this eBox/pBox type.

Eleventh, the present invention is characterized in that history ofcreating the proof of purchase is recorded and a process of creating theproof of purchase is trailed when the proof of purchase is created.Then, when the eBox proof of purchase is created based on the pBox proofof purchase, a history of creating the proof of purchase is recorded andthe ID of the pBox proof of purchase as a parent is recorded in thehistory of creating the proof of purchase for the foregoing eBox proofof purchase which has been created.

Twelfth, the present invention is characterized in that the box set fileis deleted when the proof of purchase is sent to the client terminal.

Thirteenth, the present invention is characterized in that, if there isno response to a task of creating and sending a proof of purchase, aftera process of settling accounts is executed, a request of the proof ofpurchase is received once again and an unacquired proof of purchase isreissued so as to counter telecommunication trouble during operation.

Fourteenth, the present invention is characterized in that a licensedistribution system includes: a client terminal for outputting apurchase request of a license and a license request; a storefront serverfor receiving a request of purchasing the foregoing license for viewingdigital contents via a network from the foregoing client terminal; and alicense distribution management means for creating a proof of purchasecorresponding to a request of purchasing the foregoing license, in whichthe foregoing storefront server includes a reception window terminal anda management terminal for executing necessary processes for issuing alicense, the foregoing license distribution management means includes: acommodity management means for managing a commodity by linking asubscription commodity or a package commodity with a relevant licensecommodity; a proof of purchase creation means for creating a pBox proofof purchase corresponding to a subscription commodity or a packagecommodity as an object of a request of purchasing the foregoing license;and a proof of purchase creation means for creating a relevant eBoxproof of purchase by responding to an eBox request for a licensecommodity having respective items including the foregoing pBox proof ofpurchase, and the foregoing storefront server includes the steps of:receiving a purchase request of a license for viewing digital contentssold as a subscription commodity or a package commodity by grouping twoor more commodities via a network from the foregoing client terminal inthe foregoing reception window terminal; executing a process of settlingaccounts for a request of purchasing license after receiving a requestof purchasing the foregoing license; creating a pBox proof of purchasecorresponding to a subscription commodity or a package commodity as anobject of purchasing license after a process of settling accounts iscompleted; sending a created pBox proof of purchase to the foregoingclient terminal from the foregoing license distribution management meansvia the foregoing storefront server; sending a relevant eBox proof ofpurchase created by the foregoing license distribution management meansto the foregoing client terminal if the foregoing client terminal sendsan eBox request corresponding to a license commodity having respectiveitems including the foregoing pBox proof of purchase; and sending alicense created by the foregoing license distribution management meansto a client terminal of requesting this license if the foregoing clientterminal sends a license request including the foregoing eBox proof ofpurchase.

Fifteenth, the present invention is characterized in that a commoditymanagement means manages commodities by giving an MPID, which is acommon identifier as a connector of management-linking the subscriptioncommodity or package commodity with the relevant license commodity, tothe both commodities.

Sixteenth, the present invention is characterized in that if a requestof purchasing license for viewing digital contents is received via anetwork from a client terminal, a reception window terminal of astorefront server receives a purchase request of a license and executesa process of settling accounts at the first stage and then a managementterminal of a storefront server installed in a back position from theforegoing reception window terminal in view of the side of the clientterminal executes a process necessary for issuing a license anddistributing contents after this reception window terminal, and furtherwhen the license and contents are distributed, the contents aredistributed to the client and the license is created by attachinglicense contents linking data designating the relationship between thelicense and the foregoing distributed contents so as to distribute tothe client.

Seventeenth, the present invention is characterized in that the clientmakes a copy of the contents linking data attached to the license in apredetermined data region of the contents after the license isdistributed to the client.

Eighteenth, the present invention is characterized in that a viewerprogram is included in the contents.

Nineteenth, the present invention is characterized in that the licenseand the contents are provided once again if the contents are poor afterthe license and the contents are provided. When these license andcontents are provided once again, a revoke check process is executedbased on the ID of the proof of purchase.

Twentieth, the present invention is characterized in that an electronicbook display terminal includes: a bookshelf management means formanaging data by receiving from a memory medium being storing anelectronic book content and a license for browsing this content; anelectric power management means for managing an ON/OFF switchingoperation of a main electric power; an input means for inputting variousindications; a time means for timekeeping a current time; a usage limitcheck means for checking a limit of using license; a display means fordisplaying data; and a control means for controlling an operation of afunction unit of a storing unit. In this electronic book displayterminal, the foregoing control means transfers to a waiting state byturning OFF the foregoing main electric power of an electric powermanagement means immediately when the foregoing display means displays aresult display according to an indication from the foregoing inputmeans.

Twenty first, the present invention is characterized in that indicationof operation of designating a book to be browsed, browsing pages, andbrowsing books is input from the input means of the electronic bookdisplay terminal, the usage limit check means checks to confirm whetherbrowsing is permitted by checking the contents of a license based on apresent time acquired by the foregoing time means, and the foregoingelectric power management means includes a sub-CPU and monitorsexistence of an input for designating a start operation while keeping acondition in which the foregoing main electric power is turned OFF.

As explained in the foregoing, according to the present invention, tobegin with, when a purchase request of a license for viewing digitalcontents is received via a network from a client terminal, a receptionwindow terminal of a storefront server receives a purchase request of alicense and executes a process of settling accounts at the first stage.Thus, no mistake is made for acquiring money at the time of selling thelicense, and further a table and/or a process for checking whethercharging is made or not are not needed for a license selling process,thus an operational process and a process program can be simplified anda memory can be used effectively.

Second, the present invention, as a process of telecommunication betweenthe client terminal and the storefront server, receives a request fromthe client terminal at a reception window terminal of a storefrontserver and then executes a process necessary for purchasing the licenseby a management terminal of a storefront server installed in a backposition from the foregoing reception window terminal in view of theside of the client terminal. Accordingly, telecommunication between theclient terminal and an accounting process unit can be performed by astorefront window terminal any time. Thus, in the event that the clientterminal and the accounting process unit are connected with thestorefront server, even if the specification of each storefront serverof the client terminal side and the accounting process unit is differentfrom each other, a storefront gateway as the management terminal of thestorefront server is not needed for changing the structure oftelecommunication on the side of the storefront server. Accordingly, thestorefront server can carry out an advantageous performance for ageneral purpose.

Third, the present invention sends electronic data for acquiring a proofpurchase to a client terminal without sending a proof of purchase to aclient terminal immediately when the proof of purchase is created, thusthe proof of purchase can be delivered securely upon the request for aproof of purchase.

Fourth, the present invention, even if a task cannot respond duringselling the license, continues to execute a process and reissue theproof of purchase by referring to the box set file, thus secure and firmproof can be issued.

Fifth, the present invention, if a request of purchasing license forviewing digital contents is received via a network from a clientterminal, a reception window terminal of a storefront server receives apurchase request of a license and executes a process of settlingaccounts at the first stage and then a management terminal of astorefront server installed in a back position from the foregoingreception window terminal in view of the side of the client terminalexecutes a process necessary for issuing license after this receptionwindow terminal executes a process of settling accounts completely, thelicense of a commodity in which two or more commodities are grouped canbe purchased and/or sold. Further, no mistake is made for acquiringmoney at the time of selling license, and further a table and/or aprocess for checking whether charging is made or not are not needed fora license selling process, thus an operational process and a processprogram can be simplified and a memory can be used effectively. Further,telecommunication between the client terminal and the accounting processunit can be performed by the reception window terminal. Thus, in theevent that the client terminal and the accounting process unit areconnected with the storefront server, even if the specification of eachstorefront server of the client terminal side and the accounting processunit is different from each other, the management terminal of thestorefront server is not needed for changing the structure oftelecommunication on the side of the storefront server. Accordingly, thestorefront server can carry out an advantageous performance for ageneral purpose.

Sixth, the present invention creates, when a process necessary forissuing license after settling accounts is executed, a proof of purchase(electric data corresponding to a receipt of a general transaction, areturn receipt, or a claim check) without issuing a license directly andsends it to a client terminal and then license is issued by receiving alicense issuance request from a client terminal, thus an accident and/ordiscrepancy for selling the license can be avoided.

Seventh, the present invention, when a process necessary for issuing thelicense is executed after a process of settling accounts is executed, apBox proof of purchase is created corresponding to a package commodity(two or more commodities are gathered and grouped) or a subscriptioncommodity as an object of a request of purchasing license and sends itto a client terminal, then an eBox request is received for requesting aneBox in which the pBox is disassembled from the client terminal, arelevant eBox proof of purchase is created and it is sent to the clientterminal, and license is requested by a relevant client terminal, thepackage commodity and/or the subscription commodities containing pluralcommodities can be purchased and sold smoothly and the accident and/ordiscrepancy for selling the license can be avoided.

Eighth, the present invention creates a box set file for recordinghistory of a process up to sending to the client terminal from creatingthe proof of purchase and adds necessary data such as its file ID and IDof the foregoing process of settling accounts to a created box set fileeach time each process is executed, thus the progressing degree ofexecuting the processes can be identified and a trouble cannot occur.

Ninth, the present invention, without sending a pBox proof of purchaseimmediately if the foregoing pBox proof of purchase is created, sendsthe foregoing box set file and then sends the box set (including thepBox proof of purchase) to the client terminal by receiving a box setrequest from the client terminal, thus the proof of purchase can bedelivered more safely and securely.

Tenth, the present invention gives MPID, which is a common identifier asa connector so as to manage and link-manage a commodity by linking asubscription commodity or a package commodity with a relevant licensecommodity, to both commodities. Thus, the commodities as the objects canbe searched and gathered simply and promptly as a group from a largeamount of commodity groups. Further, commodities of a database can berearranged in an adjusting order, grasped, and managed securely.

Eleventh, the pBox proof of purchase corresponds with a receipt ofselling a group of two or more commodities, and the eBox proof ofpurchase can be created by disassembling this pBox proof of purchase,thus a group of commodities can be disassembled easily by a computerprocess. Further, a commodity, which is treated as an object of the eBoxproof of purchase by a link management means having an MPID as aconnector, can be searched and acquired in a process of creating theeBox proof of purchase from this pBox proof of purchase. Further, pluralMPIDs different from each other can be attached to the licensecommodities. Still further, because the license commodity to whichplural MPIDs are attached can be contained in a group of a packagecommodity and/or plural subscription commodities each of which isdifferent to each other, one commodity can have plural aspects(features) for each commodity and is contained in plural categories orattributes for each aspect. For these cases, the subscription and/orpackage commodity can be edited and created flexibly and a sales modecan be changed dynamically.

Twelfth, the present invention deletes the box set file if the proof ofpurchase is sent to the client terminal, thus unnecessary data is notkept in a memory and the memory can be used effectively.

Thirteenth, the present invention, when a request of purchasing licensefor viewing digital contents is received via a network from a clientterminal, receives a purchase request of a license by a storefrontreception window terminal of a storefront server and executes a processof settling accounts at the first stage by the storefront receptionwindow terminal and then a management terminal, i.e. a storefrontgateway, of a storefront server installed in a back position from theforegoing storefront reception window terminal in view of the side ofthe client terminal executes a process necessary for issuing licenseafter this storefront reception window terminal executes a process ofsettling accounts completely, telecommunication between the clientterminal and the accounting process unit can be performed by thestorefront window terminal anytime.

Fourteenth, in the event that the client terminal and the accountingprocess unit are connected with the storefront server, even if thespecification of each storefront server of the client terminal side andthe accounting process unit is different from each other, a storefrontgateway as the management terminal of the storefront server is notneeded for changing the structure of telecommunication on the side ofthe storefront server. Accordingly, the storefront gateway can carry outadvantageous performance for a general purpose so as to handle variousstorefront servers.

Fifteenth, the present invention, if the client terminal acquires thelicense and the contents, includes an LC connector for identifying therelationship between them in the license and the contents as data, thusthe contents and the license using it are not confused to each otherwith in one client terminal. Further, the foregoing LC connector isrecorded in the license firstly by allocating the contents ID in thelicense distribution management means and this license is copied as apart of contents data by a bookshelf management means within the clientterminal after this license is sent to the client terminal, thus the LCconnector is effectively recorded as an advantageous effect in both ofthe license and the contents.

Sixteenth, the present invention includes a viewer program in thecontents, thus the application of displaying the contents can be sent asone set only by sending the contents. Especially, if a control processof providing the contents once again is executed because misplaced pagesare found in the contents and the viewer program has a bug and the like,the contents are provided once again together with the application ofdisplaying the contents. Thus, the client side is released from theoperation of updating separately the contents and the viewer program,and an advantageous effect of browsing immediately after a new book isprovided once again can be obtained.

Seventeenth, the present invention executes a process of providing thelicense and the contents once again upon executing a process of checkinga revoke at the time of providing the license and the contents onceagain, thus even if an inquiry concerning an inconvenient condition forthe same proof of purchase is given by the user many times, thereception for the correct contents which was provided once again in thepast can be denied and thus dishonest request can be avoided as anadvantageous effect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a functional block diagram of a license distributionsystem of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sequence chart of a license sale control operation of alicense sale system of the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a subsequent sequence chart of the foregoing FIG. 2 of alicense sale control operation of a license sale system of the firstembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 indicates the data structure of the proof of purchase of thefirst embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is the data structure of the eBox of the first embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 is the structure of the box set of the first embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 7 is the data structure of a box set header of the first embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 8 is the structure of the box set file ID created by the storefrontgateway of the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 indicates the related structure condition among the proof ofpurchase, eBox, and the box set of the first embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 10 is a sequence chart of the license sale control operation of thelicense sale system of the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a subsequent sequence chart of the foregoing FIG. 10 of thelicense sale control operation of the license sale system of the secondembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a sequence chart of the response operations of the case inwhich a task of the storefront server cannot respond in the license salesystem of the third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a subsequent sequence chart of the foregoing FIG. 12 of theresponse operations of the case in which a task of the storefront servercannot respond in the license sale system of the third embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 14 is a sequence chart of the operation of controlling the licensesale of the license sale system of the fourth embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 15 is a subsequent sequence chart of the foregoing FIG. 2 of theoperation of controlling the license sale of the license sale system ofthe fourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a subsequent sequence chart of the foregoing FIG. 15 of theoperation of controlling the license sale of the license sale system ofthe fourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a subsequent sequence chart of the foregoing FIG. 16 of theoperation of controlling the license sale of the license sale system ofthe fourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a part of the list of the commodities of the rights of usingthe license guided for selling the commodities of the fourth embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 19 is the data structure of the proof of purchase of the fourthembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is the structure of data of the pBox of the fourth embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 21 is the structure of the box set of the fourth embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 22 indicates the related structure condition among the proof ofpurchase, eBox, pBox, and the box set of the fourth embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 23 is a link management chart of the mode in which a commodityinformation database manages the commodities by linking subscriptionand/or package commodity with a relevant license commodity of the fourthembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 24 is the data structure of the eBox proof of purchase created by apBox proof of purchase creation process of the fourth embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 25 is a proof of purchase creation history table in which proof ofpurchase creation history is recorded in the pBox proof of purchasecreation means of the fourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 26 is the data structure of the eBox proof of purchase created bythe operating process of creating the eBox proof of purchase from thepBox proof of purchase of the fourth embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 27 is proof of purchase creation history in which the proof ofpurchase creation history is recorded in a process of creating the eBoxproof of purchase from the pBox proof of purchase in the fourthembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 28 is the proof of purchase creation history table in which proofof purchase creation history is recorded in the process of creating theeBox proof of purchase from the pBox proof of purchase using a differentsystem from FIG. 26 in the fourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 29 is an explanatory view of reissuing the eBox proof of purchaseusing the pBox of the fifth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 30 is a sequence chart of the control operation after the screen ofcompleting the process of settling accounts is displayed from thecontrol operation of providing the license and the contents of thesystem of providing the license and the contents of the sixth embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 31 is a subsequent sequence chart of the foregoing FIG. 30 of thecontrol operation of providing the license and the contents of thesystem of providing the license and the contents of the sixth embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 32 exemplifies the data structure of the contents and the licenseused in the system of providing the contents and the license of thesixth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 33 is a list of exemplifying that the license and the content areprepared in the system of providing the contents and the license of thesixth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 34 is a block diagram of the structure of an electronic bookdisplay terminal for replaying and browsing the electronic book of theseventh embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 35 is a flowchart of the operation of the electronic book displayterminal of the seventh embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 36 illustrates the bookshelf screen of the electronic book displayterminal of the seventh embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 37 illustrates a bibliography screen with bookshelf screen and afront page of the specific book of the electronic book display terminalof the seventh embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 38 is a sequence chart of the control operation of providing onceagain the license and the contents of the system of providing thecontents and the license of the eighth embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 39 is a subsequent sequence chart of the foregoing FIG. 38 of thecontrol operation of providing once again the license and the contentsof the system of providing the contents and the license of the eighthembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 40 is a subsequent sequence chart of the foregoing FIG. 39 of thecontrol operation of providing once again the license and the contentsof the system of providing the contents and the license of the eighthembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 41 is a subsequent sequence chart of the foregoing FIG. 40 of thecontrol operation of providing once again the license and the contentsof the system of providing the contents and the license of the eighthembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 42 exemplifies a damaged commodity list provided in a CS callcenter in the system of providing the contents and the license of theeighth embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 43 exemplifies a revoke proof of purchase list used in the systemof providing the contents and the license of the eighth embodiment ofthe present invention.

Hereinafter, the embodiments of the present invention are explained withreference to attached drawings. At this point, the present invention isnot limited to these embodiments, but various modes can be carried outwithin the scope of the spirit of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT First Embodiment

FIG. 1 illustrates a functional block diagram of a license sale systemof the first aspect of the present invention. A reference number 100indicates a license distribution management means having a function of alicense distribution management server (LDMS). A reference number 200indicates a storefront server (SF). A reference number 300 indicates aclient terminal. A reference number 400 indicates a contentsdistribution server. A reference number 500 indicates an accountprocessing unit.

The license distribution management means 100 includes a proof ofpurchase creation means 101, a license creation means 102, a licenseprovision means 103, a commodity information database 110, and a proofof purchase creation history storing means 120. POP (Proof Of Purchase)means electric data corresponding to a claim ticket, a returncertificate, a receipt, etc. for general business transaction. Further,the “commodity” of the present invention indicates license.

The storefront server 200 includes a storefront window terminal 210 as areceipt window terminal for receiving a purchase request of the licensefrom a client terminal 300 and a storefront gateway (GW) 220 as amanagement terminal installed in a back position from the storefrontwindow terminal 210 in view of the client terminal 300. The storefrontwindow terminal 210 includes a client request receiving means 211, acommodity list storing means 212, a purchase request answering means 213for performing an answering process to a license purchase request fromthe client terminal 300, and a settlement means 214 for processing thesettlement of an accounting process unit 500.

The storefront gateway 220 includes a box set file creation means 221for creating a box set file, a box set file management means 222 formanaging and storing the box set file which was created, a box set filedeletion means 223 for deleting the box set file which becameunnecessary, a box set creation means 224 for creating the box set (abunch of proof of purchases) which gathered each eBox by creating theeBox as a receipt corresponding to each proof of purchase based on theproof of purchase which was received from the license distributionmanagement means 100, and a box set provision means 226 for sending thebox set which was stored in the box set file management means 222 to theclient terminal 300.

The client terminal 300 includes a bookshelf management means 301 formanaging the proof of purchase which was received from the storefrontserver 200 and a web browser 302 for establish communication between theclient terminal 300 and the storefront server 200 or the licensedistribution management means 100. Further, the client terminal 300includes a data input means 303 for inputting data such as command dataat the time of requesting of the license to be purchased, a displaymeans 304 for displaying management contents of the bookshelf managementmeans 301, and a control means 305 for controlling the process of theclient terminal 300. Still further, the client terminal 300 includes aninterface 306 for loading data which was stored in the bookshelfmanagement means 301 in an external memory medium, so as to load data ofthe license and contents in the external memory medium such as a memorycard 307 via this interface 306. Further, in FIG. 1, a reference number600 indicates a commodity information register terminal for registeringcommodity information (license information) in the commodity informationdatabase 110.

The operation of a license distribution system of the first embodimentis explained hereinafter, in the event that a user (customer) having oroperating the client terminal 300 wants to buy the license of anelectronic book on the Internet as an example of the network.

The digital contents of the present invention cannot be browsed if thelicense is not given even if the contents are distributed. The methodfor doing so can be realized by way of including a decoding key in thelicense by encrypting the digital contents. Although those encrypteddigital contents are downloaded into the client terminal 300 from thecontents distribution server 400, its downloading can be processedanytime. Further, it is supposed that the commodity information database110 is structured using a SQL database and the commodity information(license information) is registered using an insert sentence of SQL fromthe commodity information register terminal 600 in advance. A part ofinformation of this commodity information database 110 is sent to thestorefront server 200 and stored in the commodity list storing means 212of the storefront window terminal 210.

The commodity information managed by the commodity information database110 includes data for a commodity ID, an item name, a price, a title, anauthor name, an effective start date, an effective end date, apublishing date, a publisher name, etc. of each commodity (a publicationof the book and an electric recording medium such as CD and DVD in whichmusic and a picture image are recorded is assumed in this embodiment).Further, each device of the license distribution management means 100,the storefront server 200, and the client terminal 300 is connected bythe network so as to structure the system. A secure protocol such as SSLshall be used since communication shall be made securely so as tocommunicate data including personal information such as creditinformation and the license for copyright protection.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are sequence charts of a license sale control operation ofa license sale system of the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, in the firstplace, the client terminal 300 performs a member login request to thestorefront server 200 from the web browser 302. This member loginrequest needs a member ID and a password. On the side of the storefrontserver 200, the client request receiving means 211 of the storefrontwindow terminal 210 receives the foregoing login request and also getsthe member ID and the password. Then, the storefront window terminal 210reads the commodity list from the commodity list storing means 212 andsends display screen data for the member and cookie information to theweb browser 302. After this, the web browser 302 adds cookie informationto transmitting information for the storefront window terminal 210. Thecommodity list indicates information explaining the right of using thecontents sold by the storefront server 200.

The commodities for purchasing shall be selected between the storefrontwindow terminal 210 and the web browser 302, if the commodity forpurchasing is decided, although the number of commodities may be one ormore, the purchase request of a license is sent to the storefront windowterminal 210 from the web browser 302. For the process at this stage, anID group of the commodities for purchasing shall be sent as transmittingdata.

Then, on the side of the storefront server 200, the purchase requestanswering means 213 of the storefront window terminal 210 receives theforegoing request of purchasing, and calculates the tax and purchaseamount of purchasing commodities. Next, the amount data is sent to thesettlement means 214 if an amount of money is inquired, and thesettlement means 214 requests the operation of settling accounts to theaccounting process unit 500. For this request of settling accounts, datasuch as the ID group of commodities, an amount of money, and a creditcard number is sent to the accounting process unit 500 from thesettlement means 214. The accounting process unit 500 returns a responseof settling accounts to the storefront window terminal 210 if theoperation of settling accounts is finished. A settlement ID is added tosuch a response of settling accounts.

The storefront window terminal 210 checks whether or not the foregoingoperation of settling accounts is processed correctly in the purchaserequest answering means 213, and the network telecommunication forrequesting and/or receiving the license shall be terminated if theresult of checking is abnormal. The abnormal condition of the operationof settling accounts indicates the cases of the abnormal operation ofsettling accounts, the missing of the corresponding credit card number,the shortage of money there is left, and so forth. If the operation ofsettling accounts is normal, within the storefront server 200, the proofof purchase is requested to the storefront gateway 220 from thestorefront window terminal 210 as the request of the box set. If thisbox set is requested, the foregoing settlement ID and member ID and theID group of commodities received from the client terminal 300 aretransmitted as transmitting data.

At this stage, the relationship between the proof of purchase and thebox set is explained. FIG. 4 indicates the data structure of the proofof purchase. This proof of purchase is created by the proof of purchasecreation means 101 of the license distribution management means 100.This proof of purchase includes respective data of the proof of purchaseID, the purchase item name (commodity name) and contents downloadingURL, the purchase amount (price exclusive of tax), the consumption taxrate, the purchase date and time, the IP address of the purchaseterminal, the shop name of purchasing items, the business owner name ofdistributing the license, the name of supporting a customer, a supporttelephone number, a support e-mail address, and signature data. At thispoint, the signature data indicates data in which the body of the proofof purchase is encrypted by the specified key and logic, and thesignature is made at the time that the proof of purchase is created bythe proof of purchase creation means 101 of the license distributionmanagement means 100. Each proof of purchase is created to eachcommodity uniquely, and the purchase data is sent to the storefrontgateway 220 from the license distribution management means 100 so as tocreate the eBox by integrating the proof of purchase with metadata ifone proof of purchase is created and signed. FIG. 5 is the datastructure of the eBox. If there are two or more purchase items, two ormore proof of purchases, that is to say, a group of proof of purchasesare sent to the storefront gateway 220 from the license distributionmanagement means 100, and two or more eBoxes are grouped altogether soas to create the set box as well as those two or more eBoxes accordingto the number of purchasing the commodities are created in thestorefront gateway 220.

FIG. 6 is the structure of the box set BoxSet. This box set is composedof BoxStHeader and one or more eBoxes. The condition to decide whethereBox contained in the box set is single or plural is defined by thecondition to decide whether the purchase commodity is single or pluralat the time of each purchase of the user. Accordingly, the proof ofpurchase, the eBox, and the box set are basically identical to eachother and the proof of purchase is treated as a basic element of thestructure. Further, the proof of purchase, the eBox, and the box set canbe treated as electric data corresponding to the receipt (a returnreceipt or the claim ticket may be used) of general transactions.Therefore, the process of the box set file management means 222 shall beidentical to the operation of managing the receipt at the time ofpurchasing items of the user.

FIG. 7 is the data structure of a box set header BoxSetHeader. ThisBoxSetHeader includes a box set file ID and signature data. Thesignature data is data in which the box set body is encrypted by thespecific key and logic, and signed at the time of creating the box setby the box set creation means 224 of the storefront gateway 220.

FIG. 9 indicates the related structure condition among the foregoingproof of purchase, eBox, and box set. That is to say, the proof ofpurchase is contained in the eBox as a chief structure element, the boxset gathers those eBoxes as one set, and the box set header is attachedthereto so as to define (prescribe) this box set.

FIG. 8 is the structure of the box set file ID created by the storefrontgateway 220. This box set file ID contains the member ID, the settlementID, and a box set ID.

As explained in the foregoing, in the event that the settlement resultis normal, the proof of purchase is requested as the box set request tothe storefront gateway 220 from the storefront window terminal 210 ofthe storefront server 200. Then, when this box set request is made, thestorefront gateway 220 checks whether or not the box set request fromthe storefront window terminal 210 is normal. This type of check isexecuted by processing brief authentication for the storefront windowterminal 210. For example, the process of verifying an IP address of thestorefront window terminal 210 is executed. Two or more storefrontwindow terminals 210 may be connected to the storefront gateway 220. Inthis case, the IP addresses of the storefront window terminals 210 maybe multiplexed.

After the storefront window terminal 210 is authenticated, the box setfile creation means 221 of the storefront gateway 220 creates the boxset file having the settlement ID as a file name under the directory ofthe member ID. The foregoing settlement ID is the settlement ID attachedto the settlement answered from the accounting process unit 500 in theforegoing settlement process. At this point, the description of the boxset ID is not made since the box set is not yet created at this stage.The box set file created in this way is stored in the box set filemanagement means 222. The storefront gateway 220 sends the request ofthe proof of purchase to the license distribution management means 100(POP request) after the foregoing box set file is created. For this POPrequest, the commodity ID group attached to the box set request from thestorefront window terminal 210 is attached as sending data.

Upon receiving the foregoing POP request, the license distributionmanagement means 100 checks to confirm whether or not the POP requestfrom the storefront gateway 220 is normal. This checking operation isexecuted by the process of storefront gateway authentication, e.g. theprocess of SSL mutual authentication, etc. After the storefront gateway220 has been authenticated, the proof of purchase (POP) is created bythe proof of purchase creation means 101 of the license distributionmanagement means 100. At the same time as this process, the history ofcreating the proof of purchase is recorded by the proof of purchasecreation means 101, then this history of creating the proof of purchaseis stored in the proof of purchase creation history storing means 120.At this point, an example of the history of creating the proof ofpurchase is indicated in FIG. 2 using a table form. In this example ofthe history of creating the proof of purchase, each of data ofexpressing “012345,” “987654,” etc. indicates each ID of the proofs ofpurchase which have been created, and also corresponds to each ID of theproofs of purchase of FIG. 4. Then, the proofs of purchase which havebeen created shall be sent to the storefront gateway 220. Further, whentwo or more proofs of purchase are created, a group of the proofs ofpurchase (POP group) is sent.

In the storefront gateway 220, which received the proof of purchase, thebox set creation means 224 creates the eBox for each proof of purchase,and further creates the set box which gathered plural eBoxes as one setso as to be stored and managed in the box set file management means 222.The box set ID is attached to this box set, then the contents of the boxset are recorded in the corresponding box set files, and further theforegoing box set ID is attached to the extension of the box set filename. Then, while the foregoing box set is maintained in the box setfile management means 222, the box set file ID is sent to the storefrontwindow terminal 210 from the storefront gateway 220.

If the storefront window terminal 210 receives the box set file ID, HTMLis created so as to receive automatically the box set as well as thenotice of settlement completion in the purchase request answering means213. The box set file ID received from the storefront gateway 220 isincluded in this HTML. HTML for acquiring automatically the foregoingbox set as well as the notice of settlement completion is sent to theweb browser 302 of the client terminal 300 from the purchase requestanswering means 213.

In the client terminal 300, the completion of settling accounts isdisplayed on the display means 304 based on HTML for the received noticeof settlement completion as well as automatic acquisition of the boxset. The message of “THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR PURCHASE. RECEIPT (THEPROOF OF PURCHASE) IS RECEIVED CONTINUOUSLY.” is displayed in a displayscreen, for example.

The operation after the completion of settling accounts is displayed onthe screen is explained with reference to FIG. 3. The web browser 302 ofthe client terminal 300 activates the steps (or processes) automaticallyfor acquiring the box set, and the process for acquiring the box set isstarted. If the process for acquiring the box set is started, therequest of the box set is sent to the storefront window terminal 210from the web browser 302. In this process, the box set file ID isattached as data. Next, on the side of the storefront server 200, thepurchase request answering means 213 of the storefront window terminal210 receives the foregoing box set request, and this box set request istransferred to the storefront gateway 220. In this process, the box setfile ID is also attached as data. Upon receiving the foregoing setrequest, the storefront gateway 220 sends the box set by extracting thecorresponding box set from the box set file management means 222 basedon the box set file ID, and the box set provision means 226 sends thisbox set to the storefront window terminal 210.

Upon receiving the box set, the storefront window terminal 210 sends thebox set to the web browser 302 of the client terminal 300 from thepurchase request answering means 213. Upon receiving the box set, theweb browser 302 activates the bookshelf management means 301 with a MIMEtype of the box set and stores the box set so as to bookshelf-manage thebox set, and further the notice of receiving the box set is sent to thestorefront server 200 from the bookshelf management means 301. Thisnotice is to confirm that the client terminal 300 has received the boxset from the storefront server 200. This box set receiving notice issent to the storefront gateway 220 from the purchase request answeringmeans 213 of the storefront window terminal 210. The box set header isattached if the box set receiving telecommunication is performed.

If the storefront gateway 220 receives the box set, the storefrontgateway 220 checks to confirm whether or not the box set header isinterpolated. If there is no interpolation, the relevant box set file isdeleted from the box set file management means 222. In this way, whenthe notice of receiving the box set is received, since the storefrontgateway 220 deletes the box set file and there is no nonconformity insuch a manner that the same box set is repeatedly sent to the clientterminal 300, the secure process can be executed. At this stage, whenthe directory for the member ID becomes empty since the box set file isdeleted, the member directory itself shall be deleted. Accordingly,unnecessary data is not left in a limited memory region for a long time,thus the memory can be used effectively. After the foregoing processes,the response of receiving the box set is responded to the storefrontwindow terminal 210 from the storefront gateway 220, and further thisresponse of receiving the box set is responded to the bookshelfmanagement means 301 of the client terminal 300 from the storefrontwindow terminal 210.

At this stage, for the foregoing operation, the client terminal 300,that is to say, the user has not yet acquired the license, but has onlythe proof of purchase (a group of receipts as the box set type) foracquiring its license. Thus, if the client terminal 300 wants to acquirethe license, the bookshelf management means 301 disassembles the box setinto each box, that is to say, each eBox so as to display the contentsof the eBox in GUI in a browsing way. The user designates the object ofacquiring the license in a list displayed in the display means 304 andsends the license request to the license distribution management means100. This license request means the request of issuing the licenseitself to the storefront server 200 from the client terminal 300 and adifferent processing operation from the purchase request of a license,thus the proof of purchasing the designated eBox is attached to thislicense request.

If the license distribution management means 100 receives the foregoinglicense request, the license distribution management means 100 checks toconfirm whether or not the proof of purchase attached to the licenserequest from the bookshelf management means 301 is interpolated. If thelicense request from the bookshelf management means 301 is notinterpolated, it is checked to confirm whether or not the record ofcreating the relevant proof of purchase is found in its proof ofpurchase creation history storing means 120. Then, if the record ofcreating the relevant proof of purchase is found, the license creationmeans 102 deletes the relevant proof of purchase creation history of theproof of purchase creation history storing means 120, as well as thelicense creation means 102 creates the license designated by its proofof purchase. Then, the created license is sent to the license provisionmeans 103 and then sent to the client terminal 300 from the licenseprovision means 103. Accordingly, the license for the proof of purchasedesignated on the side of the client terminal 300 is issued. On the sideof the client terminal 300, the issued license is stored in thebookshelf management means 301, and the license is performed within thepredetermined term. At this stage, as already been described, thedigital contents as the object of performing the license can bedownloaded arbitrarily at any time as explained before. In general, thedigital contents are downloaded into the client terminal 300 arbitrarilyfor the period until the license is issued or performed.

As explained in the foregoing, according to the present embodiment, whenthe purchase request of a license for viewing the digital contents isreceived from the client terminal 300 via the network, the purchaserequest of a license is received by the storefront window terminal 210of the storefront server 200 and then the storefront window terminal 210executes the operation of settling accounts at the first stage. Then,after it is confirmed that the storefront window terminal 210 completesthe process of settling accounts securely, the necessary process ofissuing the license is executed in the management terminal of thestorefront server installed in the back portion from the foregoingstorefront window terminal 210 in view of the side of the clientterminal 300, that is to say, the storefront gateway 220. Accordingly,the telecommunication with the client terminal 300 and the accountingprocess unit 500 can be executed by the storefront window terminal 210all the time. Thus, even if each specification of the side of the clientterminal 300 and the side of accounting process unit 500 is not the sameas each storefront server 200, the modification of the structure ofconnecting the telecommunication on the side of the storefront server200 is not required even to the store front gateway 220, and further thestorefront gateway 220 can have a higher performance for a generalpurpose so as to be applied to a variety of storefront servers 200.

Second Embodiment

FIGS. 10 and 11 are sequence charts of the license sale controloperation of the license sale system of the second embodiment of thepresent invention.

The license sale control operation of the present embodiment isidentical with the license sale control operation of the firstembodiment intrinsically. The different point from the license salecontrol operation of the first embodiment is a process of executingafter the box set creation means 224 has created the box set in thestorefront gateway 220.

That is to say, after the license distribution management means 100 hascreated the proof of purchase, the storefront gateway 220 which receivesthe proof of purchase from the license distribution management means 100creates the eBox for each proof of purchase in the box set creationmeans 224 and the box set as a set of grouping plural eBoxes. Further,the box set ID is attached to this box set and the foregoing box set IDis attached to the extension of the box set file name, as well as thecontents of the box set are recorded in the relevant box set file.

Up to the foregoing, the operation of the first embodiment is the sameas the operation of the second embodiment. After this stage, theoperation of the second embodiment is different from the operation ofthe first embodiment. That is to say, in the storefront gateway 220,after the foregoing box set ID is granted and the box set file ID isattached, the set box is sent to the box set provision means 226 and thebox set provision means 226 sends this box set to the storefront windowterminal 210.

Upon receiving the box set, the storefront window terminal 210 sends thebox set to the client terminal 300 from the purchase request answeringmeans 213. When the client terminal 300 receives the box set, thebookshelf management means 301 is activated with the MIME type of thebox set, and the notice of receiving the box set is sent to thestorefront server 200 from the bookshelf management means 301, as wellas the box set is stored so as to be bookshelf-managed. This box setreceiving notice is sent to the storefront gateway 220 from the purchaserequest answering means 213 of the storefront window terminal 210. Ifthe storefront gateway 220 receives the box set, the storefront gateway220 checks to confirm whether or not the box set header is interpolated.If there is no interpolation, the relevant box set file is deleted fromthe box set file management means 222. At this stage, in the event thatthe directory for the member ID becomes empty since the box set file isdeleted, the member directory itself is deleted.

Then, when the client terminal 300 wants to acquire the license, thebookshelf management means 301 disassembles the box set into each box,that is to say, each eBox so as to display the contents of the eBox inGUI in a browsing way. On the contrary, the user designates the objectof acquiring the license in a list displayed in the display means 304and sends the license request to the license distribution managementmeans 100. The proof of purchasing the designated eBox is attached tothis license request.

If the license distribution management means 100 receives the foregoinglicense request, the license distribution management means 100 checks toconfirm whether or not the proof of purchase attached to the licenserequest from the bookshelf management means 301 is interpolated. If thelicense request from the bookshelf management means 301 is notinterpolated, it is checked to confirm whether or not the record ofcreating the relevant proof of purchase is found in its proof ofpurchase creation history storing means 120. Then, if the record ofcreating the relevant proof of purchase is found, the license creationmeans 102 deletes the relevant proof of purchase creation history of theproof of purchase creation history storing means 120, as well as thelicense creation means 102 creates the license designated by its proofof purchase. Then, the created license is sent to the license provisionmeans 103 and then sent to the client terminal 300 from the licenseprovision means 103. Accordingly, the license for the proof of purchasedesignated on the side of the client terminal 300 is issued.

In this way, the operation steps for the license sale control operationof the license sale system can be simplified and the processing speedbecomes higher by sending the box set immediately to the storefrontwindow terminal 210 by omitting the operation of sending the box setfile ID to the client terminal 300 after the box set is created in thestorefront gateway 220. Further, the programs of executing the licensesale control operation can be simplified, and an application can preventthe trouble from being caused to some degree.

Third Embodiment

FIGS. 12 and 13 are sequence charts of the response operations of thecase in which a task of the storefront server 200 cannot respondalthough the operation of settling accounts was executed by sending thepurchase request to the storefront server 200 from the client terminal300 in the license sale system with respect to the third embodiment ofthe present invention.

In this embodiment, as indicated in FIG. 12, the client terminal 300executes the operation of requesting the member login to the storefrontserver 200 from the web browser 302. The member ID and the password areattached to this member login request. On the side of the storefrontserver 200, the client request receiving means 211 of the storefrontwindow terminal 210 receives the foregoing login request and it takes inthe member ID and the password. Next, the storefront window terminal 210sends the information of the cookie and the member display screenincluding a various types of operation menus (including a troublecorresponding operation) to the web browser 302. After this operation,the web browser 302 attaches the cookie information to the informationof sending to the storefront window terminal 210.

The web browser 302 selects a purchase history request from the varioustypes of operation menus and then sends this purchase history request tothe storefront server 200.

Next, on the side of the storefront server 200, the purchase requestanswering means 213 of the storefront window terminal 210 gets thesettlement ID and a settlement history within a predetermined time (e.g.48 hours) of the member, then requests a box set file ID to thestorefront gateway 220. In the storefront gateway 220, the box set filename under the member ID directory indicated by the relevant member IDis acquired from the box set file management means 222, and the box setfile ID (an ID group in the case of plurality) is sent to the storefrontwindow terminal 210. On the side of the storefront window terminal 210,a purchase history list HTML is created by matching a settlement historywith the box set file ID. If there is a box set which has not yet beenacquired, its box set is pointed out specifically in this purchasehistory list. The storefront window terminal 210 sends the foregoingpurchase history list to the client terminal 300. The client terminal300 checks the purchase history list which has been sent, and informs acall center in the event that the box set cannot be acquired againalthough the settlement has been completed.

There are at least two processes for executing succeeding processesafter this stage.

(Corresponding Process 1: Refund Process)

In this process, the call center executes a refund process between theaccounting process unit 500 and the call center. In this case, the callcenter sends a manual refund request to the accounting process unit 500.Data such as the settlement ID and the member ID is attached to thismanual refund request. In the accounting process unit 500, the processof canceling a credit operation is executed, then a manual refundresponse is returned to the call center. Accordingly, the clientterminal 300 can receives a refund.

(Corresponding Process 2: Reissue Process)

In this process, the call center sends a box set manual reissue requestto the storefront server 200. In this manual reissue request, data suchas the settlement ID, a member ID, and a commodity ID group is attachedto this manual reissue request. In the storefront server 200, thestorefront gateway 220 checks to confirm whether or not the manualreissue request from the foregoing call center is normal. This check isexecuted by the process of simple authentication for the call center,e.g. the process of verifying the IP address of the operator terminal ofthe call center. Then, the storefront gateway 220 sends the request ofthe proof of purchase to the license distribution management means 100(POP request). For this POP request, a commodity ID group is attached assending data.

Upon receiving the foregoing POP request, the license distributionmanagement means 100 checks to confirm whether or not the POP requestfrom the storefront gateway 220 is normal. This check operation isexecuted by the process of authenticating the storefront gateway, e.g.the process of SSL mutual verification, etc. After the storefrontgateway 220 is verified, the proof of purchase (POP) is created by theproof of purchase creation means 101 of the license distributionmanagement means 100. At the same time, the proof of purchase creationhistory is recorded by the proof of purchase creation means 101, andthis proof of purchase creation history is stored in the proof ofpurchase creation history storing means 120. Then, the proof of purchasethus created is sent to the storefront gateway 220. Further, a proof ofpurchase group (POP) is sent if the two or more proof of purchases arecreated.

In the storefront gateway 220 which has received the proof of purchase,the box set is created by grouping plural eBoxes as one set, as well asthe eBox is created for each proof of purchase in the box set creationmeans 224. The box set ID is attached to this box set, and further theforegoing box set ID is attached to the extension of the box set filename, as well as the contents of the box set are recorded in thecorresponding box set file. Then, the box set manual reissue response issent to the call center from the storefront gateway 220. Accordingly,the client terminal 300 can acquire again the box set by executing theoperation of “UNCERTAIN ACQUIRED BOX SET LIST REQUEST.”

FIG. 13 is a sequence chart of the operation of requesting again the boxset in the event that the uncertain acquired box set is found in areacquired list. In this case, the box set request is sent to thestorefront window terminal 210 from the web browser 302. In thisprocess, the box set file ID is attached as data. Then, on the side ofthe storefront server 200, the purchase request answering means 213 ofthe storefront window terminal 210 receives the foregoing box setrequest, and transferred this box set request to the storefront gateway220. In this process, the box set file ID is also attached as data. Inthe storefront gateway 220, when the foregoing box set file request isreceived, the relevant box set is extracted from the box set filemanagement means 222 based on the box set file ID and sent to the boxset provision means 226, then the box set provision means 226 sends thisbox set to the storefront window terminal 210.

Upon receiving the box set, the storefront window terminal 210 sends thebox set to the client terminal 300 from the purchase request answeringmeans 213. In the event that the client terminal 300 receives the boxset, the bookshelf management means 301 is activated with the MIME typeof the box set, and the notice of receiving the box set is sent to thestorefront server 200 from the bookshelf management means 301, as wellas the box set is stored so as to be bookshelf-managed. This is a noticeto confirm that the client terminal 300 has received the box set fromthe storefront server 200 in the event that the box set is reissued inprogress. Thus received box set receiving notice is sent to thestorefront gateway 220 from the purchase request answering means 213 ofthe storefront window terminal 210.

If the storefront gateway 220 receives the box set receiving notice, thestorefront gateway 220 checks to confirm whether or not the box setheader is interpolated. If there is no interpolation, the relevant boxset file is deleted from the box set file management means 222. In thisway, if the notice of receiving the box set is received, since thestorefront gateway 220 deletes the box set file and there is nononconformity in such a manner that the same box set is repeatedly sentto the client terminal 300, a secure process can be executed. At thisstage, when the directory for the member ID becomes empty since the boxset file is deleted, the member directory itself is deleted.Accordingly, unnecessary data is not left in a limited memory region fora long time, thus the memory can be used effectively. After theforegoing processes, the response of receiving the box set is returnedto the storefront window terminal 210 from the storefront gateway 220,and further this response of receiving the box set is responded to thebookshelf management means 301 of the client terminal 300 from thestorefront window terminal 210. In the present embodiment, if the taskhas no response in the process of responding and notifying to such aseries of receiving processes in which the box set receiving response isreturned to the bookshelf management means 301 via the storefront windowterminal 210 from the storefront gateway 220 after the receiving noticeof the box set is sent to the storefront gateway 220 via the storefrontwindow terminal 210 from the bookshelf management means 301, the processof responding and notifying repeatedly to the receiving process is notexecuted. Further, the process is transferred to “RESIDUAL BOX SETDELETION BATCH” of the storefront gateway 220.

Fourth Embodiment

Then, the fourth embodiment of the present invention is hereinafterexplained. The operation of the license distribution system of thisfourth embodiment is explained by exemplifying the case where the user(customer) having or operating the client terminal 300 wants to purchasethe license of an electronic book on the Internet as an example of thenetwork. Besides, the method for purchasing the license of the foregoingelectronic book is targeted to the case of bulk purchasing the licensesof plural bundle sale books as a package commodity or purchasing aperiodical publication monthly in addition to purchasing a license ofeach electronic book. A license of each electronic book is purchased bythe same operation as the foregoing operations explained in theforegoing first to third embodiments. At this point, the structure ofthe license distribution system is the same as the structure of FIG. 1.

In the present embodiment, the commodity information database 110 hastype information to discriminate each commodity registered therein fromthe cases where its commodity is a license commodity (explainedhereinafter) sold one by one using predetermined availability, itscommodity is a subscription commodity that is sold for a predeterminedterm based on a monthly contract, etc., or its commodity is a packagecommodity in which plural commodities are bundle sold as a package.Further, the commodity information database 110 has a function as acommodity management means for managing the commodities by linking thesubscription commodity or the package product with a license commodityfor each commodity registered in the commodity information database 110.Apart of information of the commodity information database 110 is sentto the storefront server 200, and stored in the commodity list storingmeans 212 of the storefront window terminal 210.

FIGS. 14 to 17 are sequence charts of the operation of controlling thelicense sale of the license sale system of the present invention. InFIG. 14, at first stage, the client terminal 300 issues the member loginrequest from the web browser 302 to the storefront server 200. In thismember login request, the member ID and the password are attached. Onthe side of the storefront server 200, the client request receivingmeans 211 of the storefront window terminal 210 receives the foregoinglogin request and takes in the member ID and the password. Then, thestorefront window terminal 210 reads out a list of the commodities fromthe commodity list storing means 212 and sends the information of amember picture screen and the cookie to the web browser 302. After thisoperation, the web browser 302 attaches the cookie information to theinformation sent to storefront window terminal 210. The meaning of thelist of the commodities indicates the information of explaining orguiding the rights of using the contents sold by the storefront server200.

A part of the list of the commodities of the rights of using the licenseguided by the list of the commodities is exemplified in FIG. 18. Thecontents of this list of the commodities are also expected by thelicense sale system of the present embodiment.

As the contents thereof, as the first example, the contents can becommercialized by way of two or more usage methods (Usage Rule). In thisspecification, each commodity specified by way of each usage rule isreferred to as “LICENSE COMMODITY.” As an example thereof, there is thecase of ruling the usage rights of a monthly magazine Ox, 2003 March bysetting out the usage term and the selling price as follows: Usage rightfor three days ¥150- Usage right for seven days ¥350- Usage right forone month ¥550- Usage right for an indefinite period ¥850-,where, each of “Usage right for three days ¥150-,” “Usage right forseven days ¥350-,” “Usage right for one month ¥550-,” . . . indicateseach license commodity. This license commodity can be purchased as amonthly purchase and/or a single purchase. This is the same as the casewhere the monthly magazine can be purchased using the monthly contractor the magazine of “Issue Δ” sold at the present time can be purchasedeven if the monthly contract is not made.

The second example of guiding commodities is commercialization of thesubscription rights of the license commodities for periodicalpublications such as monthly and weekly magazines. This item is referredto as “SUBSCRIPTION COMMODITY” in this specification. This means thelicense commodity sold based on the monthly contract. As an examplethereof, there are commodities in which the usage rights are providedfor each publication issue of monthly publications Ox by setting a usageterm, a monthly contract term, and the price as follows: Usage right forthree days Reading for six months ¥  850- Reading for twelve months¥1,650- Usage right for seven days Reading for six months ¥2,000-Reading for twelve months ¥3,850- Usage right for one month Reading forsix months ¥3,000- Reading for twelve months ¥6,050- Usage right for anindefinite period Reading for six months ¥5,000- Reading for twelvemonths ¥9,350-,where, each of “Usage right for three days, Reading for six months ¥850-,” “Usage right for three days, Reading for twelve months ¥1,650-,”“Usage right for seven days, Reading for six months ¥2,000-,” “Usageright for seven days, Reading for twelve months Y¥3,850-” . . .indicates each subscription commodity.

The third example of guiding commodities is the item of a bundle (group)commercializing plural license commodities, if the contents exist(already published). This item is referred to as “PACKAGE COMMODITY” inthis specification. As an example thereof, there are commodities ofproviding the usage rights for each issue of all the seventeen technicalmagazines describing DRM by setting the usage termand the price asfollows: Usage right for three days ¥ 2,400- Usage right for seven days¥ 5,600- Usage right for one month ¥ 8,800- Usage right for anindefinite period ¥13,600-,where, each of “Usage right for three days ¥2,400-,” “Usage right forseven days ¥ 5,600-,” “Usage right for one month ¥8,800-,” . . .indicates each package commodity. This sale of the package commoditycorresponds to the sale of a back number magazine, etc.

As explained in the foregoing, if the commodities are subscriptioncommodities and/or package commodities, plural commodities (e.g. sixissues in the case of six month reading subscription based on monthlycontract) are bundles as one group under a certain rule (or term), andits group is treated as one commodity.

The commodity to be purchased is selected between the storefront windowterminal 210 and the web browser 302, and the user decides the item tobe purchased by watching the foregoing guide information of thecommodity list. The number of the commodities to be purchased may be oneor more kinds among the foregoing license commodities, subscriptioncommodities, and package commodities, and the number of units forpurchasing may be one or more commodity items. When the purchase item isdecided, the purchase request of a license is sent to the storefrontwindow terminal 210 from the web browser 302. In this process, the kindof the purchase item and a commodity ID group are sent as transmittingdata.

Then, on the side of the storefront server 200, the purchase requestanswering means 213 of the storefront window terminal 210 receives theforegoing purchase request and calculates the purchase amount and taxfrom the purchase items. Then, when the amount is calculated, the amountdata is sent to the settlement means 214 and the settlement means 214issues the settlement request to the accounting process unit 500. Forthis settlement request, data such as the commodity ID group, theamount, and the credit card number is sent to the accounting processunit 500 from the settlement means 214. The accounting process unit 500,if the settlement process is completed, returns the response ofsettlement to the storefront window terminal 210. The settlement ID isattached to this settlement response.

The storefront window terminal 210 checks to confirm whether or not theresult of the foregoing settlement process is correct in the purchaserequest answering means 213. If the result of the foregoing settlementprocess is not correct, the network telecommunication for requestingand/or receiving to purchase the license is terminated. The conditionthat the settlement result is not correct indicates the case where thesettlement has not been performed correctly, the relevant credit cardnumber cannot be found, and remaining money is not enough. If thesettlement result is normal, within the storefront server 200, the proofof purchase is requested to the storefront gateway 220 from thestorefront window terminal 210 by requesting the box set. For requestingthis box set, the foregoing settlement ID, the member ID, and thecommodity ID group received from the client terminal 300 are sent assending data.

At this point, the relationship between the proof of purchase and thebox set is explained. FIG. 19 is the data structure of the proof ofpurchase. The proof of purchase of FIG. 19 is slightly different fromthe structure of FIG. 4, thus the proof of purchase of FIG. 19 isreferred to as the “second proof of purchase.” This second proof ofpurchase is created by the proof of purchase creation means 101 of thelicense distribution management means 100. This second proof of purchaseincludes respective data of the proof of purchase ID, data fordiscriminating whether the commodity (a receipt to be created will bethe eBox) corresponding to a regular license commodity or the licensecommodity (hereinafter, referred to the subscription commodity or thepackage commodity. In this case, a receipt to be created will be apBox.) corresponding to the subscription commodity and the packagecommodity, the commodity ID, the purchase item name (commodity name) andthe contents download URL, the amount of purchase (tax excluded), theconsumption tax rate, the purchase date and time, the purchase terminalIP address, the purchase shop name, the license distribution businessowner name, the customer support name, the support telephone number, thesupport Email address, and the signature data. At this point, thesignature data indicates data in which the body of the proof of purchaseis encrypted by the specified key and logic, and the signature is madeat the time that the proof of purchase is created by the proof ofpurchase creation means 101 of the license distribution management means100. Each proof of purchase is created to each commodity uniquely, andthe purchase data is sent to the storefront gateway 220 from the licensedistribution management means 100 so as to create the eBox byintegrating the proof of purchase with metadata, when the foregoing oneproof of purchase is created and signed when the commodity is thelicense commodity. The structure of data of the eBox is the same as thestructure of FIG. 5. Further, in the event that plural commodities aregrouped under a certain rile and treated as the subscription commodityor the package commodity, one commodity ID is attached to its group. Ifthe foregoing one proof of purchase is created and signed to such asubscription commodity, the pBox is created by integrating the proof ofpurchase with metadata by sending from the license distributionmanagement means 100 to the storefront gateway 220. FIG. 20 is thestructure of data of the pBox. If there are plural proofs of purchases,that is to say, plural commodity IDs are designated, a group of proof ofpurchases, that is to say, plural proof of purchases are sent from thelicense distribution management means 100 to the storefront gateway 220.Then, two or more eBoxes and pBoxes are created corresponding to thenumber of purchasing commodities in the storefront gateway 220 as wellas those plural eBoxes and pBoxes are grouped so as to create the boxset.

FIG. 21 is the structure of the box set BoxSet. The different point ofthe box set between FIG. 21 and FIG. 6 is that the box set of FIG. 21 iscomposed of the box set header BoxSetHeader, one or more eBoxes, and oneor more pBoxes. In the example of FIG. 10, the set box is structured inthe order of eBox, pBox, and eBox from the upper position to the lowerposition. The condition whether the number of the eBoxes and/or thepBoxes of the box set is one or more depends on the condition whetherthe number of commodities corresponding to the eBoxes and/or the pBoxespurchased by the user is one or more. Accordingly, it is obvious thatthe proof of purchase, the eBox, the pBox, and the box set are basicallyidentical to each other and the proof of purchase is a basic element ofeach structure. Further, the proof of purchase, the eBox, the pBox, andthe box set can be treated as electric data corresponding to the receipt(a return receipt or the claim ticket may be used) of generaltransactions. Therefore, the process of the box set file managementmeans 227 is identical to the operation of managing the receipt at thetime of purchasing items of the user. The structure of data of the boxset header is the same as FIG. 7.

FIG. 22 indicates the related structure condition among the foregoingproof of purchase, eBox, pBox, and box set. That is to say, the proof ofpurchase is contained in the eBox and the pBox as chief structureelements, the box set gathers those eBoxes and/or pBoxes as one set, andthe box set header is attached thereto so as to define (prescribe) thisbox set.

The structure of the box set file ID created by the storefront gateway220 is the same as the structure of FIG. 8.

As explained in the foregoing, if the settlement result is normal, theproof of purchase is requested as the box set request to the storefrontgateway 220 from the storefront window terminal 210 in the storefrontserver 200. For requesting this box set, the commodity ID groups andclassified data attached to the purchase request from the web browser302 are attached as sending data. Then, in the event that this box setrequest is made, the storefront gateway 220 checks whether or not thebox set request from the foregoing storefront window terminal 210 isnormal. This type of check is executed by processing briefauthentication for the storefront window terminal 210. For example, theprocess of verifying an IP address of the storefront window terminal 210is executed. Two or more storefront window terminals 210 may beconnected to the storefront gateway 220. In this case, the IP addressesof the storefront window terminals 210 may be multiplexed.

After the storefront window terminal 210 is authenticated, the box setfile creation means 221 of the storefront gateway 220 creates the boxset file having the settlement ID as a file name under the directory ofthe member ID. The foregoing settlement ID is the settlement ID attachedto the settlement answered from the accounting process unit 500 in theforegoing settlement process. At this point, the box set ID is notrecorded since the box set is not yet created at this stage. The box setfile created in this way is stored in the box set file management means222. The storefront gateway 220 sends the request of the proof ofpurchase to the license distribution management means 100 (POP request)after the foregoing box set file is created. For this POP request, thecommodity ID groups and the classified data attached to the box setrequest from the storefront window terminal 210 are attached as sendingdata.

Upon receiving the foregoing POP request, the license distributionmanagement means 100 checks to confirm whether or not the POP requestfrom the storefront gateway 220 is normal. This checking operation isexecuted by the process of storefront gateway authentication, e.g. theprocess of SSL mutual authentication, etc. After the storefront gateway220 has been authenticated, the proof of purchase (POP) is created bythe proof of purchase creation means 101 of the license distributionmanagement means 100. The proof of purchase creation means 101 createsthe proof of purchase by reading out data necessary for the commodityfrom the commodity information database 110. At the same time as thisprocess, the history of creating the proof of purchase is recorded bythe proof of purchase creation means 101, then this history of creatingthe proof of purchase is stored in the proof of purchase creationhistory storing means 120.

At this point, the operation of creating the foregoing the proof ofpurchase and the operation of recording the history of creating theproof of purchase are explained herein as a process 1.

(Operation of Process 1)

FIG. 23 is a link management chart of the commodity information database110 as a commodity management means managing the commodities by linkingthe subscription commodities and/or the package commodities(hereinafter, referred to as a subscription/package commodity) with therelevant license commodities. In FIG. 23, there is created each field ofa license commodity table expressing the license commodity by a tableformat in the left end side. Further, there is created each field of thesubscription/package commodity expressing the subscription/packagecommodity by a table format in the right end side. In the licensecommodity list, each of the contents of the commodity ID, the purchaseitem name and the rights of using the license is recorded or registeredfor one kind of commodity. In the subscription/package commodity table,each of the contents of the commodity ID, the purchase item name and therights of using the license is recorded or registered for a groupedcommodity. Each linkage table 1 and each linkage table 2 are providedbetween the license commodity table and the subscription/packagecommodity table. The linkage table 1 and the linkage table 2 have afunction to link each commodity of the license commodity table with eachcommodity of the subscription/package commodity table.

The linkage table 2 is created by attaching ID (MPID) as a commonidentifier for bundling the subscription commodities for each of thecontents of the rights of using the commodities registered in thesubscription/package commodity table, that is to say, having the samereading period and/or any relevant subscription commodities or packagecommodities. That is to say, the linkage table 2 is created by attachinga different MPID by extracting the commodity for each of the rights ofusing three days, the rights of using seven days, . . . . of thecommodity table of the rights of using the license as indicated in FIG.18. In FIG. 23, MPID 001 indicates ID attached to all of subscriptioncommodities relevant to three days usage rights for each issue ofmonthly publication Ox. In the same way, MPID 004 indicates ID attachedto all of subscription commodities relevant to seven days usage rightsfor each issue of monthly publication Ox. MPID 003 indicates ID attachedto the package commodity composed of all the seventeen technicalmagazines with respect to DRM technology. Further, MPID 002 indicates IDattached to the package commodity composed of all twelve volumes of Ascientific society of academic journals 2002.

At this point, the linkage table 1 is a table in which each commodity IDand the foregoing MPID are extracted from data of the commodities of thelicense commodity table so as to correspond to each commodity one byone. Further, one license commodity of plural linkage tables 1 isrelated to each record of each linkage table 2.

At this stage, in FIG. 23, the commodity (referred to A) of thesubscription/package commodity table which is enclosed by a double lineframe is considered as an example. The commodity ID of the commodity is0098, and MPID thereof is 001. Then, the contents of the licenseindicate “Usage rights for three days for each issue of the monthlymagazine o^(x) shall be practiced (read) for six months” and this meansthe subscription commodity. On the contrary, the commodity (referred toB) having a frame under A is considered. The commodity ID of thecommodity is 0201 and MPID thereof is 001. Then, the contents of thelicense indicate “Usage rights for three days for each issue of themonthly magazine Ox shall be practiced (subscribed) for twelve months”and this also means the subscription commodity. The commodity A and thecommodity B have the same contents in the point of “Usage rights forthree days for each issue of the monthly magazine Ox,” thus each MPIDhas the same 001. The fourth commodity (referred to C) from the top ofthe license commodity tables is considered. The commodity ID of thecommodity is 0101 and the contents of the license indicate “Usage rightsfor three days for 2003 March issue of the monthly magazine Ox.” Thismeans the license commodity. Comparing the commodity C with commoditiesA and B, they have the same contents in the point of “Usage rights forthree days for the monthly magazine Ox.” Thus, they are linked tocommodities A and B using an identifier MPID 001 via the linkage table 1and the linkage table 2. In the same way, the commodities D, E, and F ofthe license commodity tables of FIG. 23 are also linked to thecommodities A and B. For the license commodity tables of FIG. 23, thecommodity ID of the commodity D is 0102 and data of “MPID 001” and “MPID003” is created in the linkage table 1. This means that the commodity Dhas an attribute linked to the commodity (commodities for commodity ID0097) as the package commodity in the point of being included in “Allseventeen books of technical journals for DRM technology” while thecommodity D has an attribute linked to the commodities A and B as thesubscription commodity in the point of “Usage rights for three days forthe monthly magazine Ox.” The linkage connectivity of FIG. 23 is made inthe same way as above explained.

If the kind data received via the storefront window terminal 210 and thestorefront gateway 220 from the web browser 302 indicate the pBox, thelicense distribution management means 100 searches and designates thecommodity having the foregoing received commodity ID in the “commodityID” field of the records of the subscription/package commodity table ofFIG. 23.

At this point, it is provided that the commodity ID is “0098” and thecommodity A is identified. Providing the contents of the commodity A,“Usage rights for three days for each issue of the monthly magazineo^(x) shall be practiced (read) for six months” is defined.

Then, the license distribution management means 100 creates the proof ofpurchase using information maintained by the record acquired by thesubscription/package commodity table in the proof of purchase creationmeans 101. The proof of purchase created by such a proof of purchasecreation process is indicated in FIG. 24. In this proof of purchase,“00326” is attached to the proof of purchase ID. This number is attachedfor creating this proof of purchase as a serial number attached eachtime the proof of purchase which has been executed from the past iscreated. The type of eBox/pBox is recorded as the pBox, and it isdesignated that the pBox shall be created for creating eBox or pBox insucceeding processes. The commodity ID is “0098.” The proof of purchasename, contents download URL, etc. are recorded based on respective data.As the purchase date and time, “2003 Jan. 3, 15:27:32” is recorded.Then, if various information data are recorded, signature data areattached by the license distribution management means 100.

On the other hand, the license distribution management means 100 recordsproof of purchase creation history, as well as license distributionmanagement means 100 creates the foregoing proof of purchase. FIG. 25 isan example of a proof of purchase creation history table which recordsproof of purchase creation history. This proof of purchase creationhistory table is stored in the proof of purchase creation historystoring means 120, and includes a memory region for a proof of purchaseID field, a expiration date field, a commodity ID field, a parent proofof purchase ID field, and a last provision date field. In this proof ofpurchase creation history table, “00326” is recorded in the proof ofpurchase ID field. “2003 Jul. 3, 15:27:31” is recorded in the expirationdate field. This indicates the end data of “Reading for 6 months.”“0098” is recorded in the commodity ID field. None is recorded in otherfields since none is decided at this moment in time.

If this proof of purchase creation history is recorded, the proof ofpurchase created in the foregoing is sent to the storefront gateway 220.Further, if two or more proof of purchases are created, a group of proofof purchases (POP group) are sent. In this case, depending on thuscreated proof of purchase, the type of eBox/pBox may be mixed, havingboth types of the eBox and the pBox. In the following explanation, theonly pBox is considered so as to avoid confusion.

In the storefront gateway 220 which received the proof of purchase(pBox), the box set creation means 224 grouped plural pBoxes as one setso as to create the box set (refer to FIG. 21), and stores and maintainsthe box set in the box set file management means 222. The box set ID isattached to this box set. Further, the foregoing box set ID is attachedto the extension of the box set file name, as well as the contents ofthe box set are recorded in the corresponding box set file. Then, whilethe foregoing box set is maintained in the box set file management means222, the box set file ID is sent to the storefront window terminal 210from the storefront gateway 220.

If the storefront window terminal 210 receives the box set file ID, thestorefront window terminal 210 creates HTML for settlement completionnotice and box set automatic acquisition in the purchase requestanswering means 213. The box set file ID received from the storefrontgateway 220 is included in this HTML. The HTML for the foregoingsettlement completion notice and box set automatic acquisition is sentto the web browser 302 of the client terminal 300 from the purchaserequest answering means 213.

The client terminal 300 displays the completion of settlement in thedisplay means 304 based on HTML for thus received settlement completionnotice and box set automatic acquisition. In the display screen, “THANKYOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR PURCHASE. NOW, RECEIPT (PROOF OF PURCHASE) WILLBE RECEIVED.” is displayed, for example.

Then, the web browser 302 of the client terminal 300 activatesautomatically the procedure (or process) of acquiring the box set, andthe process of acquiring the box set is started. If the process ofacquiring the box set is started, the box set request is sent to thestorefront window terminal 210 from the web browser 302. In thisprocess, the box set file ID is attached as data. Then, on the side ofthe storefront server 200, the purchase request answering means 213 ofthe storefront window terminal 210 receives the foregoing box setrequest, and the purchase request answering means 213 transferred thisbox set request to the storefront gateway 220. In this process, the boxset file ID is also attached as data. In the storefront gateway 220, ifthe foregoing box set request is received, the relevant box set isextracted from the box set management means 222 based on the box setfile ID and transferred to the box set provision means 226, then the boxset provision means 226 sends this box set to the storefront windowterminal 210.

If the storefront window terminal 210 receives the box set, thestorefront window terminal 210 sends the box set to the web browser 302of the client terminal 300 from the purchase request answering means213. If the web browser 302 receives the box set, the bookshelfmanagement means 301 is activated with the MIME type of the box set, andthe notice of receiving the box set is sent to the storefront server 200from the bookshelf management means 301, as well as the box set isstored so as to be bookshelf-managed. This box set receiving notice is anotice to confirm that the client terminal 300 has received the box setfrom the storefront server 200. This box set receiving notice is sent tothe storefront gateway 220 from the purchase request answering means 213of the storefront window terminal 210. The box set header is attached ifthe box set receiving telecommunication is performed.

Upon receiving the box set, the storefront gateway 220 checks to confirmwhether or not the box set header is interpolated. If there is nointerpolation, the storefront gateway 220 deletes the relevant box setfile from the box set file management means 222. In this way, when thenotice of receiving the box set is received, since the storefrontgateway 220 deletes the box set file and there is no nonconformity insuch a manner that the same box set is repeatedly sent to the clientterminal 300, thus the secure process can be executed. At this stage,when the directory for the member ID becomes empty since the box setfile is deleted, the member directory itself is deleted. Accordingly,unnecessary data is not left in a limited memory region for a long time,thus the memory can be used effectively. After the foregoing processes,the response of receiving the box set is returned to the storefrontwindow terminal 210 from the storefront gateway 220, and further thisresponse of receiving the box set is responded to the bookshelfmanagement means 301 of the client terminal 300 from the storefrontwindow terminal 210.

In the next stage, the process of acquiring a group of eBoxes from theclient terminal 300 is started. The proof of purchase of the pBoxreceived in the prior process is attached to this eBox request. When theprocess of requesting the eBox is started, the eBox request is sent tothe storefront window terminal 210 from the bookshelf management means301. In this process, the proof of purchase of the pBox received in theprior process is attached. Then, on the side of the storefront server200, the purchase request answering means 213 of the storefront windowterminal 210 receives the foregoing eBox request, and then transferredthis eBox request to the storefront gateway 220. In this process, theproof of purchase of the pBox is attached as data. In the storefrontgateway 220, it is checked to confirm whether or not the eBox requestfrom the storefront window terminal 210 is normal. This checkingoperation is executed by the process of verifying simply the storefrontwindow terminal 210, e.g. the process of verifying the IP address of thestorefront window terminal 210, etc. Two or more storefront windowterminals 210 may be connected to the storefront gateway 220. In thiscase the IP address of the storefront window terminal 210 may bemultiplexed.

After the storefront window terminal 210 is authenticated, thestorefront gateway 220 creates the foregoing box set file and then sendsthe eBox request (POP request) to the license distribution managementmeans 100. For this eBox request, the proof of purchase of the pBox sentfrom the bookshelf management means 301 is attached as sending data.Upon receiving the foregoing eBox, the license distribution managementmeans 100 checks to confirm whether or not the eBox request from thestorefront gateway 220 is normal. This checking operation is executed bythe process of storefront gateway authentication, e.g. the process ofSSL mutual authentication, etc. After the storefront gateway 220 hasbeen authenticated, the license distribution management means 100 checksto confirm whether or not the proof of purchase of the pBox receivedfrom the foregoing storefront gateway 220 is interpolated. Then, theproof of purchase of the eBox (POP) is created by the proof of purchasecreation means 101 of the license distribution management means 100. Atthe same time as this process, the history of creating the proof ofpurchase is recorded by the proof of purchase creation means 101, thenthis history of creating the proof of purchase is stored in the proof ofpurchase creation history storing means 120.

At this point, the processes of creating the proof of purchase of theforegoing eBox and this recording proof of purchase creation history areexplained as process 2.

(Operation of Process 2)

In this process 2, the proof of purchase of the eBox using pBox isissued. In this process 2, the process is executed in the followingprocessing way.

Step 1: To begin with, the proof of purchase creation means 101 of thelicense distribution management means 100 acquires “eBox/pBox type” andthe “commodity ID” from the proof of purchase of the pBox indicated viathe storefront gateway 220 by the bookshelf management means 301. Atthis point, since the eBox/pBox type is the “pBox,” a record having theforegoing acquired commodity ID as the “commodity ID” of the“subscription/package commodity table” records of FIG. 23, to put itconcretely, one record (hereinafter, referred to as a commodity record)having a “commodity ID 0098” is searched for and identified.

Step 2: Next, the proof of purchase creation means 101 acquires the MPIDrecorded in the “MPID” field of the commodity record, then recordshaving the foregoing acquired MPID as the “MPID” field of the records ofthe linkage table 1, to put it concretely, all the records (hereinafter,referred to as a group of records of extracting the linkage table 1)having “MPID 001” are searched for and identified.

Step 3: Next, the proof of purchase creation means 101 acquires thecommodity ID recorded in the “commodity ID” field of each record of agroup of records of extracting the linkage table 1, then all the records(hereinafter, referred to as a group of records of extracting thelicense commodity table) having the foregoing acquired commodity ID asthe “commodity ID” field are searched for and identified.

Step 4: Further, the proof of purchase creation means 101 extracts allthe records from a group of records of extracting the license commoditytable, corresponding to the term defined by the present date and timeand the date and time included in the last provision date field of therecord of the “proof of purchase creation history table” correspondingto the proof of purchase of the foregoing pBox of the proof of purchasecreation history table and the purchase date and time of the proof ofpurchase of the pBox indicated by the bookshelf management means 301 atthe foregoing Step 1.

Step 5: Further, the proof of purchase creation means 101 creates theproof of purchase using information recorded in each record acquired atthe foregoing Step 4. At the same time, the present date and time areoverwritten in the last provision date field of the record of the “proofof purchase creation history table” corresponding to the proof ofpurchase of the pBox indicated by the bookshelf management means 301 atthe foregoing Step 1.

Step 6: The proof of purchase creation means 101 creates the record of“proof of purchase creation history table” corresponding to the proof ofpurchase created at the foregoing Step 5.

FIGS. 26A to 26D indicate each proof of purchase of the eBox created bythe operation of the foregoing process 2. FIG. 27 is the proof ofpurchase creation history table recorded as a result of the operation ofthe foregoing process 2.

FIG. 26A is the proof of purchase of the eBox which was created. Forthis the proof of purchase of this eBox, the proof of purchase ID is“00340,” and this ID is given as a serial number at the time of creatingthe proof of purchase of the eBox. The type of the eBox/pBox is “eBox.”The commodity ID is “0101,” and this is relevant to the licensecommodity by traversing the linkage table 1 from the subscriptioncommodity of the commodity ID 0098 at the foregoing Step 4. The contentsthereof are “Usage right for three days of a monthly magazine Ox, 2003March.” FIG. 26B is the proof of purchase of the eBox which was created.For the proof of purchase of this eBox, the proof of purchase ID is“00341,” and this ID is given as the next number to the proof ofpurchase of the eBox as a serial number at the time of creating theproof of purchase of the eBox. The type of the eBox/pBox is “eBox.” Thecommodity ID is “0102,” and this is relevant to the license commodity bytraversing the linkage table 1 from the subscription commodity of thecommodity ID 0098 at the foregoing Step 4. The contents thereof are“Usage rights for three days of a monthly magazine Ox, 2003 April.” Inthe same way, the proof of purchase of the eBox of FIG. 26C and theproof of purchase of the eBox of FIG. 26D are created.

For record data of the proof of purchase creation history table of FIG.27, each of “00340” to “00343” of the proof of purchase ID fields iseach proof of purchase ID corresponding to each proof of purchase of theeBox of FIGS. 26A to 26D. Data recorded in each record corresponding toeach proof of purchase ID of the expiration date field, e.g. “2003 May22 12:47:21” represents the expiration date within which the licenserequest can be executed by the proof of purchase of this eBox, but doesnot represent the expiration date of the subscription commodity. In thisembodiment, the expiration period within which the user can request thelicense after the proof of purchase of the eBox is issued is set as 48hours. If the user does not request the license, the data of theexpiration date of the proof of purchase creation history table isdeleted by a batch procedure. At this point, although the user (the sideof client terminal 300) must have purchased the subscription commodityin the process 2, four proofs of purchase of the eBoxes are created atonce as apparent from FIGS. 26A to 26D. This is the case in which theuser cannot request the proof of purchase of the eBox of “Usage rightfor three days of monthly magazine Ox, March issue to May issue” becauseof an overseas business trip and the like but the user requeststhereafter the proof of purchase of the eBox of “Usage right for threedays of monthly magazine Ox, March issue to June issue” on May 20, 2003(48 hours before the foregoing 2003 May 22 12:47:21) because of cominghome, although the date of purchase of the subscription commodities ofthis example is “2003 Jan. 3” as explained in the foregoing. For theJune issue, the proof of purchase of the eBox must have been requestednewly because it is May. If the user has requested the proof of purchaseof the eBox of the “Usage right for three days of monthly magazine Ox,each issue,” each proof of purchase of the eBox must have been createdfor each month.

Next, the modified operations of the process 2 for the operations ofcreating the proof of purchase of the eBox and recording its proof ofpurchase creation history are explained hereinafter.

(Modified Operation of Process 2)

The modified operation of this process 2 is made by a differentstructure of the created proof of purchase creation history table fromthe case of the operation of the foregoing process 2. That is to say,the field in which data of the last provision date and time are recordedin the proof of purchase creation history table used in the operation ofthe foregoing process 2 is changed to a field of recording the commodityID which has already provided in the modified process. The modifiedoperation of the process 2 for issuing the proof of purchase of the eBoxusing the pBox executes the process in the following Steps.

Step 1: To begin with, the proof of purchase creation means 101 of thelicense distribution management means 100 acquires the “eBox/pBox type”and the “commodity ID” from the proof of purchase of the pBox indicatedvia the storefront gateway 220 by the bookshelf management means 301. Atthis point, since the eBox/pBox type is the “pBox,” a record having theforegoing acquired commodity ID as the “commodity ID” of the“subscription/package commodity table” records of FIG. 23, to put itconcretely, one record (hereinafter, referred to as a commodity record)having a “commodity ID 0098” is searched and identified.

Step 2: Next, the proof of purchase creation means 101 acquires MPIDrecorded in the “MPID” field of the commodity record, then recordshaving the foregoing acquired MPID as the “MPID” field of the records ofthe linkage table 1, to put it concretely, all the records (hereinafter,referred to as a group of records of extracting the linkage table 1)having “MPID 001” are searched for and identified.

Step 3: Next, the proof of purchase creation means 101 acquires thecommodity ID recorded in the “commodity ID” field of each record of agroup of records of extracting the linkage table 1, then all the records(hereinafter, referred to as a group of records of extracting thelicense commodity table) having the foregoing acquired commodity ID asthe “commodity ID” field are searched for and identified.

Step 4: Further, the proof of purchase creation means 101 extracts allthe records from a group of records of extracting the license commoditytable, corresponding to the term defined by the “expiration period”field of the record corresponding to the proof of purchase of theforegoing pBox of the proof of purchase creation history table and thepurchase date and time of the proof of purchase of the pBox indicated bythe bookshelf management means 301 at the foregoing Step 1.

Step 5: Further, the proof of purchase creation means 101 deletes therecords having the ID as the commodity ID recorded in the ID field ofthe commodities, which have already been provided, of the record of the“proof of purchase creation history table” corresponding to the proof ofpurchase of the pBox indicated by the bookshelf management means 301from a group of records acquired by the foregoing Step 4.

Step 6: Using information recorded in each of residual records at theforegoing Step 5, the proof of purchase is created. At the same time,each ID (license commodity ID) of those records is added to each IDfield of the commodities, which have already been provided, of therecord of the “proof of purchase creation history table” correspondingto the proof of purchase of the pBox indicated by the bookshelfmanagement means 301 at the foregoing Step 1.

Step 7: Then, the record of “proof of purchase creation history table”corresponding to the proof of purchase created at the foregoing Step 6is created.

Each proof of purchase of the eBox created by executing the modifiedoperation of the foregoing operation 2 is the same as each proof ofpurchase of the eBox indicated in each of FIGS. 26A to 26D. Then, theproof of purchase creation history table which has been recorded as aresult of the modified operation of the process 2 is indicated in FIG.28. The proof of purchase creation history table indicated in FIG. 28 isalmost equal to the proof of purchase creation history table indicatedin FIG. 27 except a part of contents.

In the event that the proof of purchase of the eBox is created and itsproof of purchase creation history is recorded by the foregoing process2 or the modified operation of the operation 2, the created proof ofpurchase of the eBox is sent to the storefront gateway 220 from theproof of purchase creation means 101. Further, two or more proofs ofpurchase of the eBoxes are created in the same way as this example, agroup of proofs of purchase of the eBoxes (POP group) is sent.

In the storefront gateway 220 which has received the proof of purchaseof the eBox, a box set is created by grouping the proofs of purchase ofthe eBoxes as one set by the box set creation means 224. Then, this boxset is sent from the storefront gateway 220 to the storefront windowterminal 210.

If the storefront window terminal 210 receives the box set, the box setis sent to the bookshelf management means 301 of the client terminal 300from the purchase request answering means 213.

If the bookshelf management means 301 receives the box set, the noticeof receiving the box set is sent to the storefront server 200 from thebookshelf management means 301, as well as the box set is stored so asto bookshelf-manage the box set. The notice of receiving this box set isa notice of notifying that the client terminal 300 receives the box setfrom the storefront server 200. The notice of receiving this box set issent to the storefront gateway 220 from the purchase request answeringmeans 213 of the storefront window terminal 210. The box set header isattached in the event that the box set is communicated so as to bereceived.

Upon receiving the notice of receiving the box set from the foregoingstorefront window terminal 210, the storefront gateway 220 checks toconfirm whether or not the notice of receiving the box set is normal.This checking operation is executed by the operation of authenticatingsimply the storefront window terminal 210, e.g. the operation ofverifying the IP address of the storefront window terminal 210. Then, aNOP process is executed in the storefront gateway 220, the notice ofresponding to the box set receipt is sent back to the storefront windowterminal 210 from the storefront gateway 220. Further, such a box setreceipt acknowledgement is sent back to the bookshelf management means301 of the client terminal 300 from the storefront window terminal 210.

At this point, in the foregoing operation, the side of the clientterminal 300, that is to say, the user has not yet received the license,and the user has only acquired the proof of purchase (a group ofreceipts as a type of box set of the package commodity and/or thesubscription commodity) for acquiring the license. Therefore, if theclient terminal 300 wants to acquire the license, the bookshelfmanagement means 301 disassembles the box set into each box, that is tosay, each eBox, and then the bookshelf management means 301 displays thecontents of the eBox at sight in GUI. The user designates the object ofacquiring the license on a list displayed in the display means 304, andthen sends the license request to the license distribution managementmeans 100. This license request is a request for the license itself tobe issued from the client terminal 300 to the storefront server 200.This license request is different from the operation of requesting thatthe license should be purchased. The proof of purchase of the designatedeBox is attached to this license request.

Upon receiving the foregoing license request, the license distributionmanagement means 100 checks to confirm whether or not the proof ofpurchase from the bookshelf management means 301 is interpolated. If theproof of purchase is not interpolated, it is checked to confirm whetheror not there is the record of creating the relevant proof of purchase inthe proof of purchase creation history storing means 120. Then, if thereis the record of creating the relevant proof of purchase, the relevantproof of purchase creation history is deleted from the proof of purchasecreation history storing means 120, as well as the license creationmeans 102 creates the license indicated by the proof of purchase. Thelicense which has been created thereafter is sent to the licenseprovision means 103, and then to the client terminal 300 from thelicense provision means. Accordingly, the license relevant to the proofof purchase indicated on the side of the client terminal 300 has beenissued. On the side of the client terminal 300, the issued license isstored in the bookshelf management means 301, and the license ispracticed within a predetermined period. As explained before, digitalcontents as the object of practicing the license can be arbitrarilydownloaded anytime. In general, the digital contents are arbitrarilydownloaded in the client terminal 300 in the period up to the issuanceor practice of the foregoing license.

As explained in the foregoing, according to the present embodiment, whenthe purchase request of a license for viewing the digital contents isreceived via the network from the client terminal 300, the request ofpurchasing its license is received by the storefront window terminal 210of the storefront server 200 and the process of settlement is executedby the storefront window terminal 210 at the first stage. Then, after itis confirmed that the operation of settling accounts is completedsecurely by the storefront window terminal 210, the management terminalof the storefront server installed in the back position from theforegoing storefront window terminal 210 in view of the side of theclient terminal 300, that is to say, the storefront gateway 220 shallexecute the process necessary for issuing the license, thus thetelecommunication between the client terminal 300 and the accountingprocess unit 500 can be entrusted to the storefront window terminal 210.Therefore, when the client terminal 300 and the accounting process unit500 are connected with the storefront server 200, even if eachspecification of the side of the client terminal 300 and the side of theaccounting process unit 500 is different from each specification of thestorefront servers 200, the modification of the structure of connectingthe telecommunication on the side of the storefront server 200 is notrequired even to the storefront gateway 220. Further the storefrontgateway 220 can have higher performance for a general purpose so as tobe applied to a variety of storefront servers 200.

Fifth Embodiment

FIG. 29 is an explanatory view of reissuing the proof of purchase of theeBox using pBox of a license sale system with respect to the secondembodiment of the present invention. In this figure, there isillustrated the aspect in which the license commodity table and theproof of purchase creation history table used for reissuing the proof ofpurchase of the foregoing eBox are linked with each other and thus theproof of purchase of the eBox can be created by the foregoingre-issuance.

As explained in the foregoing, if the proof of purchase of the eBox iscreated in the license distribution management means 100, this createdeBox proof of purchase is sent to the storefront gateway 220 from theproof of purchase creation means 101 (explanation of paragraphs “0074,0075, 0076”). Further, the foregoing eBox proof of purchase is sent tothe bookshelf management means 301 of the client terminal 300 via thestorefront window terminal 210. If the bookshelf management means 301has not received the proof of purchase of the eBox because of sometrouble while the proof of purchase of the eBox is sent to the bookshelfmanagement means 301 of the client terminal 300 from the licensedistribution management means 100, the eBox (eBox re-claim) request issent again to the storefront window terminal 210 from the bookshelfmanagement means 301 (this is the same case as requesting the eBox basedon the proof of purchase of the foregoing pBox). In this eBox re-claimprocess, the proof of purchase of the eBox is attached in the same wayas the foregoing process, this eBox re-claim process is sent to thelicense distribution management means 100 via the storefront gateway220. In this POP re-claim, the proof of purchase of the pBox which hasbeen sent from the bookshelf management means 301 is attached as thesending data. The license distribution management means 100 checks toconfirm whether or not the POP request from the storefront gateway 220is normal if the foregoing POP re-claim is received by the proof ofpurchase creation means 101. Further, it is checked to confirm whetheror not the POP of the pBox which has been received from the foregoingstorefront gateway 220 is not interpolated. When these checkingoperations are completed, the license distribution management means 100starts the operation of a re-issuance process of the proof of purchaseof the eBox.

At this point, the operation of the re-issuance process of the foregoingeBox proof of purchase is explained as the operation 3.

(Operation of Process 3)

In this process 3, the proof of purchase of the eBox is reissued. Inthis process 3, the operations are executed in the following Steps.

Step 1: First, the license distribution management means 100 acquiresthe “eBox/pBox type” and “commodity ID” from the proof of purchase whichhas been provided by the bookshelf management means 301 via thestorefront window terminal 210 and the storefront gateway 220. If the“eBox/pBox type” is the pBox, the record maintained in the proof ofpurchase ID of the proof of purchase provided in the “parent POP ID” ofthe proof of purchase creation history table is searched and identified.At this point, the proof of purchase ID indicates “00340,” “00341,”“00342,” and “00343.”

Step 2: Next, the license distribution management means 100 acquires thecommodity ID maintained in the commodity ID field of the record acquiredin the foregoing Step 1, and searches for and identifies the recordhaving the commodity ID acquired by the “sales ID” field of the licensecommodity table.

Step 3: Next, the license distribution management means 100 creates theproof of purchase using the contents of the record acquired by theforegoing Step 2. However, in this case, the value maintained by theready-made record corresponding to the proof of purchase creationhistory table is used to the value of the “proof of purchase ID.”

The proof of purchase of the eBox is reissued (recreated) by theforegoing operation. Each created eBox proof of purchase is indicated inFIGS. 29A to 29D. At this point, each created eBox proof of purchaseindicated in FIGS. 29A to 29D is the same as each eBox proof of purchaseindicated in FIGS. 26A to 26D. A group of these reissued eBox proof ofpurchases are sent to the storefront gateway 220 from the proof ofpurchase creation means 101.

In the storefront gateway 220 which has received the eBox proof ofpurchase, the box set which grouped the eBox proof of purchase as oneset is created in the box set creation means 224. Then, this box set issent to the storefront window terminal 210 from the storefront gateway220.

If the storefront window terminal 210 receives the box set, thestorefront window terminal 210 sends its box set to the bookshelfmanagement means 301 of the client terminal 300 from the purchaserequest answering means 213.

If the bookshelf management means 301 receives the box set, thebookshelf management means 301 stores the box set so as tobookshelf-manage the box set, and the notice of receiving the box set issent to the storefront server 200 from the bookshelf management means301. This notice of receiving the box set is a notice of confirming thatthe client terminal 300 has received the box set from the storefrontserver 200. This notice of receiving the box set is sent to thestorefront gateway 220 from the purchase request answering means 213 ofthe storefront window terminal 210. The box set header is attached ifthe box set telecommunication is performed.

When the storefront gateway 220 receives the notice of receiving the boxset from the foregoing storefront window terminal 210, it is checkedwhether or not the notice of receiving the box set is normal. Thischecking operation is executed by the operation of authenticating simplythe storefront window terminal 210, e.g. the operation of verifying theIP address of the storefront window terminal 210. Then, a NOP process isexecuted in the storefront gateway 220, the notice of responding to thebox set receipt is sent back to the storefront window terminal 210 fromthe storefront gateway 220. Further, such a box set receiptacknowledgement is sent back to the bookshelf management means 301 ofthe client terminal 300 from the storefront window terminal 210. Theoperations (license request) after this are the same as the foregoingfirst embodiment.

Sixth Embodiment

Next, the sixth embodiment of the present invention is explained. Theoperation of this sixth embodiment is explained hereinafter, in whichthe user (client) who has or operates the client terminal 300 purchasesthe license of the electronic books on the Internet as an example of thenetwork and further practices (more specifically, practices the right ofusage by the contents) the foregoing purchased license by receiving thedistribution of the contents. The practice of the license is, as anexample, to view the contents by receiving the distribution or provisionof the objects of the license. At this point, the license distributionsystem of FIG. 1 gives and receives the foregoing license and contents.

FIGS. 30 and 31 are sequence charts of the operation of the license andcontents of the present embodiment. Prior to the operation of FIG. 30,for starting the operation, the client terminal 300 requests the memberlogin to the storefront server 200 from the web browser 302 and theoperation of completing the operation of settling accounts is executedby performing the accounting process. The contents of this operation arethe same as the contents of the operation already explained using FIG. 2in the first embodiment. Therefore, the explanation for the operationsup to the display of the settlement completion screen from the memberlogin request to the storefront server 200 from the web browser 302 isomitted.

After the settlement completion screen has been displayed, the webbrowser 302 of the client terminal 300 activates automatically theprocedures (or process) of acquiring the box set of FIG. 30, and theprocess of acquiring the box set is started. In FIG. 30, if the processof acquiring the box set is started, the box set is requested to thestorefront window terminal 210 from the web browser 302. In thisprocess, the box set file ID is attached as data. Next, on the side ofthe storefront server 200, the purchase request answering means 213 ofthe storefront window terminal 210 receives the foregoing box setrequest, and the purchase request answering means 213 transfers this boxset request to the storefront gateway 220. In this process, the box setfile ID is attached as data. Upon receiving the foregoing box setrequest, the storefront gateway 220 extracts the relevant box set fromthe box set file management means 222 based on the box set file ID andsends the box set to the box set provision means 226, then the box setprovision means 226 sends this box set to the storefront window terminal210.

Upon receiving the box set, the storefront window terminal 210 sends thebox set to the web browser 302 of the client terminal 300 from thepurchase request answering means 213. If the web browser 302 receivesthe box set, the web browser 302 activates the bookshelf managementmeans 301 with a MIME type of the box set and stores the box set so asto bookshelf-manage the box set, and further the notice of receiving thebox set is sent to the storefront server 200 from the bookshelfmanagement means 301. The box set header is attached to the notice ofreceiving this box set. The “bookshelf management software” of each ofsucceeding figures after FIG. 30 is software for executing each typeoperation of this bookshelf management means 301. The notice ofreceiving the foregoing box set is a notice for confirming that theclient terminal 300 has received the box set from the storefront server200. This box set receiving notice is sent to the storefront gateway 220from the purchase request answering means 213 of the storefront windowterminal 210. The box set header is attached if the box set receivingtelecommunication is performed.

Upon receiving the notice of receiving the box set, the storefrontgateway 220 checks to confirm whether or not the box set header isinterpolated. If the box set header is not interpolated, the relevantbox header is deleted from the box set file management means 222. Inthis way, when the notice of receiving the box set is received, the boxset file is deleted in the storefront gateway 220, there is noinconvenience of sending the same box set to the client terminal 300many times and secure operations can be executed. At this point, if thedirectory for the member ID becomes empty since the box set file isdeleted, the member directory itself is deleted. Accordingly,unnecessary data is not left in a limited memory region for a long time,thus the memory can be used effectively. After the foregoing processes,the response of receiving the box set is responded to the storefrontwindow terminal 210 from the storefront gateway 220, and further thisresponse of receiving the box set is responded to the bookshelfmanagement means 301 of the client terminal 300 from the storefrontwindow terminal 210.

At this stage, for the foregoing operation, the client terminal 300,that is to say, the user has not yet acquired the license, but has onlythe proof of purchase (a group of receipts as the box set type) foracquiring its license. Thus, if the client terminal 300 wants to acquirethe license, the bookshelf management means 301 disassembles the box setinto each box, that is to say, each eBox so as to display the contentsof the eBox in GUI in a browsing way.

On the side of the client terminal 300, to begin with, the operation ofdownloading the contents is executed based on the browsing display ofthe foregoing GUI. Thus, if the user designates a downloading object ina list displayed in the display means 304, the bookshelf managementmeans 301 acquires URL for downloading the contents from the proof ofpurchase of the designated eBox and sends the contents request to thecontents distribution server 400.

Upon receiving the foregoing contents, the contents distribution server400 sends the digital contents as the object to the client terminal 300.The “contents DL” in FIG. 2 and the subsequent figures is software fordownloading the contents of the contents distribution server 400.Accordingly, the contents designated on the side of the client terminal300 must have been distributed to the client terminal 300. On the sideof the client terminal 300, the distributed contents are stored in thebookshelf management means 301. At this point, the distributed contentsare composed of digital contents.

Next, in the client terminal 300, license distribution management URL isacquired from the proof of purchase of the designated eBox, and thelicense request is sent to the license distribution management means100. This license request is to require the issuance itself of thelicense corresponding to the foregoing distributed contents from theclient terminal 300 to the license distribution management means 100,and this operation is a different process operation from the foregoinglicense purchase request. The proof of purchase of the designated eBoxis attached to this license request.

If the foregoing license request is received, the license distributionmanagement means 100 checks to confirm whether or not the proof ofpurchase attached to the license request from the bookshelf managementmeans 301 is interpolated. If the proof of purchase is not interpolated,it is checked to confirm whether or not there is the record of creatingthe relevant proof of purchase in the proof of purchase creation historystoring means 120. Then, if there is the record of creating the relevantproof of purchase, the relevant proof of purchase creation history ofthe proof of purchase creation history storing means 120 is deleted, aswell as the license indicated by the proof of purchase in the licensecreation means 102 is created. The licenses created thereafter is sentto the license provision means 103, and transferred to the clientterminal 300 from the license provision means 103. Accordingly, thelicense corresponding to the proof of purchase indicated on the side ofthe client terminal 300 must have been issued. On the side of the clientterminal 300, the issued license is stored in the bookshelf managementmeans 301.

In this way, the distribution of the contents is received at first, thenthe operation of receiving the distribution of the contents isperformed. The relationship between the contents and the licensedistributed in this way will be explained. FIG. 32 exemplifies thecomponents of the data and the license used in this embodiment. In FIG.32, the license 10 includes a decoding key 13 of each page and data 12recording availability limit of each page of the contents (in this case,electronic book is used) corresponding to the license, an LC connector11, as data. The availability limit 12 means data representing anavailable extent such as “five time repetitive usability” or “three dayusability.” The decoding key 13 is a key for decoding encrypteddistributed digital contents. In this embodiment, as indicated in FIG.32, the availability limit 12 is defined in each page in such a way as apage 1 availability limit 12 a, a page 2 availability limit 12 b, a page3 availability limit 12 c, . . . , and so forth. Further, the decodingkey 13 is defined in each page in such a way as a page 1 decoding key 13a, a page 2 decoding key 13 b, a page 3 decoding key 13 c, and so forth.The LC connector 11 is the license and data representing the contentscorresponding to the license, that is to say, “data linking with thelicense contents” representing the relationship between the contents andthe license representing which license corresponds to which contents,and further represents that the contents and the license having the sameLC connector 11 are linked with each other.

As the data structure of this LC connector 11, there is a characterstring in the following way:

PSSC76704283

In this character string, a header portion, “PSSC,” is an ID allocatedto the license distribution management means 100 as the licensedistributor (service provider, etc.). “76704283” in the latter part isan ID of respective contents operated by the license distributionmanagement means 100, and allocated uniquely by each licensedistribution management means 100. Therefore, appropriate data arerecorded as the LC connector 11 in the license 10. The commodityinformation database 110 allocates the foregoing contents ID in theevent that the relevant contents are registered in the commodityinformation database 110 of the license distribution management means100.

In this way, since the ID of the license distribution management means100 is contained in the LC connector 11, the collision between the samecontents IDs can be avoided, even if the bookshelf management means 301is connected to another license distribution management means other thanthe license distribution management means 100 and another relevantlicense distribution management means distributes the license for thecontents having the same contents ID.

At this point, as the data structure of the LC connector, the other datahaving the ID of the contents allocated globally and uniquely torespective contents can be given. In this case, the ID of the contentsis registered by a specified numbering entity. Further, since data ofthe LC connector 11 is globally unique, the LC connector 11 can berecorded in the contents of the contents distribution server 400.

In FIG. 32, a content 14 includes the LC connector 11, the viewerprogram 15 for displaying the recreated contents, and contents data 16,as data. Although the content 14 is sent from the contents distributionserver 400, the LC connector 11 is empty and character string data isnot yet recorded at a stage of providing the digital contents by thecontent DL. Since the viewer program 15 is included in the content 14,an application for displaying can be sent altogether only by sending thecontent 14.

In the foregoing explanation, to begin with, the bookshelf managementmeans 301 acquires the contents from the contents distribution server400, and then the license is acquired from the license distributionmanagement means 100. However, in a series of operations, the bookshelfmanagement means 301 makes a copy of the data of the LC connector 11recorded in the relevant license in the area of the LC connector of thecontents after the license is acquired. Accordingly, the state in whichthe same LC connectors 11 are recorded in the contents and the licensestored in the bookshelf management means 301 is attained. Thus, therelationship between them becomes clear. At this point, each of thecontent 14 and the license 10 recording the LC connector 11 in thebookshelf management means 301 is stored in each separate file, and eachfile name is given to each file. In this embodiment, the LC connector isused in each file name of each file, and both files are classified byhaving each different extension in each LC connector. As each file nameof each file, the following files are given:

License file: [LC connector].LCS

Contents file: [LC connector].CTT

If these types of file names are given, the LC connectors 11 areincluded in the file names, and the relationship between the license andthe contents can be identified from their file names. If such a filename is used, since the LC connector 11 is included in the file name,the relationship between the contents and the license can be identifiedfrom its file name. Further, the LC connector is included in thecontents of each file, thus the operation of identifying therelationship between the contents and the license can be executeddoubly.

In the bookshelf management means 301, the condition in which thelicense 10 and the content 14 are prepared is displayed in the displaymeans 304. FIG. 33 is a list of exemplifying that the license 10 and thecontent 14 are prepared. The list of this figure includes a condition21, a title 22, an author 23, and a purchasing date and time 24 ascolumns of indicating display contents. In this list, the condition 21is a column of indicating whether or not the license 10 and the content14 are prepared, and an icon 25 is displayed if the acquisition of thelicense 10 and the content 14 is completed. On the other hand, a blankcolumn 26 is provided if a pair of the license 10 and the content 14 isnot prepared. The title 22 is a title of the electronic book as thecontents 14. The author 23 is a name of the author of the relevant book.The purchasing date and time 24 indicate year, month, and date ofpurchasing the license 10 corresponding to the content 14.

By displaying the foregoing list, predetermined contents can be writteninto the external memory medium (or including an auxiliary memory meansor a memory medium such as a portable terminal of playing back thecontent 14) in the bookshelf management means 301. As an example of theexternal memory medium, there are provided FD, HDD, MD, an optical disc,a memory card, and other existing or future developing magnetic oroptical media. In this embodiment, the case of writing out the memorycard 307 as the external memory medium is considered. In this case, whenthe user designates the content 14 (content having the icon 25 in FIG.33) written into the memory card 307, the license 10 correspondingthereto is also designated. If an indication of writing is input fromthe data input means 303, this indication command is sent to thebookshelf management means 301 from the control means 305, and thedesignated content 14 and the license 10 corresponding thereto arewritten and stored in the memory card 307 via the interface 306.

In this way, according to this embodiment, when the storefront server200 receives the license proof of purchase for viewing the digitalcontents via the network from the client terminal 300, the storefrontwindow terminal 210 of the storefront server 200 receives the licenseproof of purchase and this storefront window terminal 210 executes theoperation of settlement at the first stage. Then, after it is confirmedby the storefront window terminal 210 that the operation of settlementis correctly completed, the management terminal of the storefront serverinstalled in the back position from the foregoing storefront windowterminal 210 in view of the side of the client terminal 300, that is tosay, the storefront gateway 220 shall execute the process necessary forissuing the license, thus the telecommunication between the clientterminal 300 and the accounting process unit 500 can be entrusted to thestorefront window terminal 210. Therefore, in the event that the clientterminal 300 and the accounting process unit 500 are connected with thestorefront server 200, even if each specification of the side of theclient terminal 300 and the side of the accounting process unit 500 isdifferent from each specification of the storefront servers, themodification of the structure of connecting the telecommunication on theside of the storefront server 200 is not required even to the storefrontgateway 220. Further the storefront gateway 220 can have a higherperformance for a general purpose so as to be applied to a variety ofstorefront servers 200.

Further, when the client terminal 300 acquires the license 10 and thecontent 14, since the LC connector 11 for specifying the relationshipbetween them is included in the license 10 and the content 14 as data,it is not caused in the client terminal 300 that some contents 14 andthe license 10 using them are confused. Further, after the foregoing LCconnector 11 is recorded in the license 10 at first because the contentID is allocated by the commodity information database 110 of the licensedistribution management means 100 and this license 10 is sent to theclient terminal 300, the LC connector 11 is treated so as to be copiedas a part of data of the content 14 by the bookshelf management means301 of the client terminal 300 and thus the LC connector can be recordedeffectively for both of the license 10 and the content 14.

Seventh Embodiment

In the foregoing sixth embodiment, the memory card 307 for storing thecontent 14 and the license 10 is set in a portable terminal (e.g.electronic book display terminal 30 of FIG. 31) for playing back thecontents 14 in this seventh embodiment, and the operation of playingback and browsing the electronic book is executed as an operation of thelicense.

FIG. 34 is a block diagram of the structure of the electronic bookdisplay terminal 30 for recreating and browsing the electronic book ofthe seventh embodiment. This electronic book display terminal 30includes a bookshelf management means 31 for receiving and managing datafrom the memory card 307, an electric power management means 32 formanaging ON/OFF of a main electric power of the electronic book displayterminal 30, an input means 33 for inputting various indications, aclock means 34, a usage limit check means 35, a display means 36, and aterminal control means 37 for controlling an entire operation of theelectronic book display terminal 30. From the input means 33, theoperations for designating a browsing book, turning over the pages,displaying the bookshelf, etc. are input. The clock means 34 clocks thepresent time. This is to check the expiration date of the license 10.The usage limit check means 35 outputs the checking result of checkingwhether or not browsing is allowed after the contents of the license hasbeen confirmed. The display means 36 displays a list of the books of thememory card 307 and the contents of the designated books. The terminalcontrol means 37 has a function as a system control unit including amain CPU. Further, the electric power management means 32 includes a subCPU and monitors the presence of the input designating a startingoperation by maintaining the main electric power in a condition ofshutting off the main electric power when not in operation.

The operation of the electronic book display terminal 30 having theforegoing structure is herein explained. FIG. 35 is an explanatoryflowchart of the operation of the electronic book display terminal 30.This electronic book display terminal 30 starts the operation by poweractivation (power activation is indicated in FIG. 35) as a trigger. InFIG. 35, when the power is activated, the electric power managementmeans 32 checks to confirm whether or not a button (switch) is pushedfor the input means 33 (Step ST1). When the button is not pushed, theoperation of checking is continued until the button is pushed. On theother hand, when the button is pushed, the electric power managementmeans 32 executes the operation of activating the power (Step ST2). Atthis point, the operation of activating the power at the time ofstarting the operation does not activate the main power, but mounts abattery in the electronic book display terminal 30 or represents ONactivation of the electric power switch and indicates that the mainelectric power is not yet turned ON. This state is the same as a waitingstate that a remote control type television waits an operation startindication from a remote control switch. In this way, the main electricpower is turned ON by pushing the button, and then the electric power isprovided to each functional part such as the terminal control means 37.At this point, the buttons for plural functions are displayed on thescreen of the display means 36, and each operation of each displayedfunction is executed by pushing each button corresponding to eachdisplayed function of the screen.

Each example of the displays of the display means 36 corresponding toeach of the buttons and operations is illustrated in FIGS. 36 and 37.FIG. 36 illustrates the bookshelf screen of the electronic book displayterminal 30, and FIG. 37 illustrates the screen of a historicalbibliography screen with a book cover. In the screen of the bookshelf ofFIG. 36, several books available for browsing are arranged in thebookshelf so as to structure a library. Each title of the books isdisplayed in each back cover of the books. Plural button functions aredisplayed in the lower portion of the bookshelf. Of these buttonfunctions, a button 41, for example, is a button for deciding theselection of the books designated by a cursor (referred to a referencenumber 46 hereinafter). Further, buttons 44 and 45 are buttons formoving the cursor 46. The button 46 moves the cursor 46 in the leftdirection, and the button 45 moves the cursor 46 in the right direction.Then, the books arranged in the bookshelf can be designated by movingthe cursor 46 in the right and left directions using buttons 44 and 45.At this point, in FIG. 36, although the cursor 46 designates the thirdbook from the upper left side, when the cursor 46 is moved continuouslyin the right direction by pushing the button 45 from this position, thecursor 46 moves to the lower left end of the bookshelf in the left handside from the upper right end of the bookshelf in the left hand side.Further, the cursor 46 moves to the upper left end of the bookshelf inthe right hand side from the lower right end of the bookshelf in theleft hand side. In this way, the cursor 46 can move in all range of onebookshelf, and the cursor 46 can move from one bookshelf to the nextbookshelf. In the same way, the similar moving pattern can be obtained.If the cursor 46 moves continuously from the position of FIG. 36 to theposition in the left direction by pushing the button 44, in the oppositedirection from the above case, the cursor 46 can move in all range ofone bookshelf and from one bookshelf to the next bookshelf. At thispoint, the buttons 42 and 43 have no function in the bookshelf screen ofFIG. 36, and no operation can be executed even if the button is pushed.

Further, in the electronic book display terminal 30, a unique system isadopted in the display and operation of the display means 36. That is tosay, in the case of the display of FIG. 36, for example, the operationof the terminal control means 37 is started only if the button 44 or 45is pushed so as to move the cursor 46, the operation of displaying thepicture image of the relevant designation is executed in such a way thatthe relevant picture image is created by pushing the button 41 so as todisplay in the display means 36 and then the operation of controllingthe system is executed in such a way that the main electric power isturned OFF so as to become a waiting state immediately after that. Inthis waiting state, although the electric power of display means 36 andthe terminal control means 37 is turned OFF, the contents of the displayof the display means 36 are recorded without modification. Further, thebooks are selected by moving the cursor 46 in the right and left handsides using the buttons 44 and 45 in FIG. 36. The book designated by thecursor 46 is selected and decided by pushing the button 41 so as tobecome the condition of FIG. 37. In FIG. 37, although the buttons 41 and43 have the functions, the buttons 42, 44, and 45 have no functions,thus no operation can be executed even if they are pressed.

In this way, the operation of controlling the system is executed in away that, during the operation of the electronic book display terminal30, the operation of displaying the screen corresponding to eachdesignation is executed and the main electric power is turned OFFimmediately after the screen is displayed so as to be transferred to thewaiting state, then a lifetime of an electric cell of a hand-held typeelectronic book display terminal 30 using the electric power by theelectric cell and a battery can be elongated as much as possible.

The buttons 41 and 43 of FIG. 37 are buttons for turning the pages, andthe button 41 turns the pages of the book in the forward direction(towards the back positions of the book in such a way as the first page,the second page, . . . ), the button 43 turns the pages of the book inthe backward direction (towards the forward positions of the book insuch a way as the tenth page, the ninth page, . . . ). Then, the buttons41 and 43 can freely turn the pages in the forward and backwarddirections. At this point, the button 41 of FIG. 37 has a function ofdeciding the selection of the book designated by the cursor 46, and thebuttons 41 and 43 have functions of turning the pages in FIG. 37,although the button 43 has no function. In this way, the functions aredifferent because the picture images displayed by the display means 36are different.

When the main electric power is turned ON, the terminal control means 37checks to confirm whether or not the page turning is designated bypushing the foregoing button (Step ST3). In the case of turning thepages, the usage limit check means 35 checks to confirm whether or notthe present date and time is within the term of using the contents,based on the contents of the license and timekeeping data from the clockmeans 34 (Step ST4). In this checking operation, if the present date andtime is within the term of using the contents, the terminal controlmeans 37 creates the result screen of turning the pages (Step ST5).Then, the data is sent to the display means 36. The display means 36which received the data of the result screen displays the result screen(Step ST6). When this display is completed, the electric powermanagement means 32 turns OFF the main electric power (Step ST7), thenthe system returns to Step ST1. In this way, it is equal toabovementioned “the relevant display operation is executed, and then thesystem transfers to a waiting state immediately” to transfer to theoperation (waiting operation) of checking whether or not the button ispushed by returning to Step ST1 after a result screen is displayed atStep ST6 and the electric power is turned OFF at Step ST7. The resultscreen displayed on the display means 36 is displayed after the mainelectric power is turned OFF. On the other hand, if the present date andtime have passed the term of using the contents in the checking processat the foregoing step ST4, the terminal control means 37 creates thescreen whose validity has expired (Step ST8). Then the data is sent tothe display means 36. The display means 36 which has received the dataof the result screen displays the expired screen (Step ST6), then thesystem transfers to Step ST7.

On the other hand, if the page ejection is not designated by pressingthe button in the checking operation at the foregoing Step ST3, theterminal control means 37 checks whether or not the operation ofpressing the button designates the decision of selecting the book (StepST9). In this checking operation, if the operation of pressing thebutton designates the decision of selecting the book, the book shelfmanagement means 31 acquires the data of the currently selected bookfrom the memory card 307 (Step ST10). Then, the terminal control means37 sets the limit condition of using the relevant book in the usagelimit check means 35 (Step ST11). Then, the terminal control means 37extracts a viewer program from the book data and loads the viewerprogram (Step ST12). The loaded viewer program creates a frontpage/bibliographic screen from the contents data of the relevant book(Step ST13). Then, the data is sent to the display means 36. The displaymeans 36 which has received the front page/bibliographic screen datadisplays the front page/bibliographic screen (Step ST6). The display ofthis front page/bibliographic screen indicates the foregoing FIG. 16.This book has a title of “KUMO NO ITO, IMOGAYU, KAPPA,” and the authoris Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The front page of the foregoing book isdisplayed on the left half part of the screen of the display means 36,and the bibliographical contents are displayed on the right hand halfpart thereof. In this state, if the button 41 is pushed, the next pageto the bibliographical screen is displayed. In this way, after the frontpage/bibliographic screen is displayed, the electric power managementmeans 32 turns OFF the main electric power (Step ST7), then the systemreturns to Step ST1.

In the checking process of the foregoing Step ST9, in the event that theoperation of pushing the button is not the decision of the selection ofthe book, the terminal control means 37 checks to confirm whether or notthe operation of pushing the button designates the operation ofdisplaying the bookshelf (Step ST14). In this checking process, if theoperation of pushing the button designates the operation of displayingthe bookshelf, the bookshelf management means 31 acquires the book listdata of the memory card 307 (Step ST15), the terminal control means 37creates the bookshelf screen based on the book list data (Step ST16),and the data is sent to the display means 36. The display means 36 whichhas received the bookshelf screen data displays the bookshelf screen(Step ST6). An example of this shelf screen indicates the foregoing FIG.15. Various kinds of electronic books are arranged in this bookshelf,and the book can be selected by moving the cursor by pushing the buttons44 and 45 within this bookshelf screen. In this way, after the bookshelfscreen is displayed, the electric power management means 32 turns OFFthe main electric power (Step ST7), then the system returns to Step ST1.

In the checking operation of the foregoing Step ST14, in the event thatthe operation of pushing the button is not the operation of displayingthe bookshelf, the terminal control means 37 creates the screen as aresult of moving the cursor by the user (or operator) operation (StepST17). Then, the data are sent to the display means 36. As a result ofmoving the cursor, the display means 36 which has received the datadisplays the screen by moving the relevant cursor (Step ST6). In thisway, after the screen is displayed as a result of moving the cursor, theelectric power management means 32 turns OFF the main electric power(Step ST7) and the system returns to the Step ST1.

In the foregoing, according to the seventh embodiment, the contents datais loaded in the exterior memory medium from the system of providing thelicense and the contents. While this exterior memory medium is set inthe electronic book display terminal 30 as another recreation device andthe bookshelf screen and the contents screen of the book are displayedon the display means 36, the book selection and page turning can beperformed, thus the distributed contents can be used with ease.

Eighth Embodiment

FIGS. 38 to 41 are sequence charts of the eighth embodiment of thepresent invention. This embodiment relates to the controlling process ofproviding both of the license and the contents in the system providingthe license and the contents.

This method for providing the license and the contents with respect tothis embodiment indicates a method for providing the license and thecontents once again if the contents of the book cannot be displayedbecause misplaced pages and/or a missing page of the electronic bookwere found and/or the viewer program has a bug, for example.

Hereinafter, the controlling process of providing the license and thecontents one more of the eighth embodiment of the foregoing invention isexplained. The bookshelf management means 301 of the client terminal 300outputs the proof of purchase to the file by designating the book havinginconvenient condition for browsing the display contents. Then, therelevant proof of purchase and the member ID are attached to an electricmail so as to inquire a CS call center. The CS call center confirms in adamaged commodity list whether or not the commodity designated by theproof of purchase which has been sent is a corrected commodity. Thisdamaged item list is exemplified in FIG. 42. This list itemizes eachdamaged commodity and each recovered commodity (corrected commodity)from each damaged condition using a list (or table) format. If thecommodity designated by the purchase of proof which has been sent cannotbe confirmed securely to be a provided object as a corrected commodityeven after referring to the damaged commodity list, this commodity isadded to the damaged item list because a new damaged commodity was newlyfound. The CS call center sends a check request of the proof of purchaseto the license distribution management means 100 after confirmation ismade using the foregoing damaged item list. The license distributionmanagement means 100 checks to confirm whether or not the proof ofpurchase is interpolated. If the proof of purchase is not interpolated,it is checked using a revoke proof of purchase table whether or not therelevant proof of purchase is revoked (invalidated).

FIG. 43 exemplifies the revoke proof of purchase table. This revokeproof of purchase table is structured by making a list (or table) formatof each proof of purchase ID to which the existence of the damagedcondition was inquired and its corrective history (result) of each proofof purchase ID, in the event that the content 14 is provided once again.This revoke proof of purchase table is used for making it clear toconfirm whether or not the damage condition is corrected for eachcommodity of the proof of purchase to which the checking operation isrequested. Then, after the proof of purchase is checked to confirmwhether or not the proof of purchase is revoked using the revoke proofof purchase table, the response of checking the proof of purchase fromthe license distribution management means 100 to the CS call center isreplied.

In this way, since the process of providing the license 10 and thecontent 14 once again is executed after the proof of purchase is checkedto confirm whether or not the proof of purchase is revoked using therevoke proof of purchase table, it is impossible to deny a handlingoperation for the contents once provided, even if the user informs manytimes that damaged was found in the same purchase item.

The response to the operation of checking the proof of purchase to theforegoing CS call center is “OK” if the proof of purchase is notinterpolated and/or revoked but “NG” for the other cases. Upon checkingof the proof of purchase, if the checking result is “NG,” the CS callcenter sends a return e-mail informing that the proof of purchase is notvalid to the client terminal 300. On the other hand, if the foregoingproof of purchase result is “OK,” the CS call center will request of thestorefront gateway 220 that the box set should be reissued manually. Adummy ID for providing once again as the settlement ID, a member ID, anda commodity ID are attached to this box set manual re-issuance request.

The storefront gateway 220 checks to confirm whether or not the box setfrom the foregoing CS call center is normal. This checking operation isexecuted by a brief authenticating process for the CS call center. Forexample, the processes of verifying the IP address of the operationalterminal of the CS call center and the like are executed.

After the CS call center was authenticated, the box file having the sizeof zero, which has a file name of the settlement ID under the directoryof the member ID, is created by the box set file creation means 221 inthe storefront gateway 220. The foregoing settlement ID is the foregoingdummy ID for providing once again. At this point, the box set ID is notrecorded because the box set is not yet created. The box set filecreated in this way is stored in the box set file management means 222.After the foregoing box set file is created, the storefront gateway 220sends a proof of purchase request to the license distribution managementmeans 100 (POP request). For this POP request, a corrected commodity IDgroup attached to the box set manual re-issuance request from the CScall center is attached as sending data.

Upon receiving the foregoing POP request, the license distributionmanagement means 100 checks to confirm whether or not the POP requestfrom the storefront gateway 220 is normal. This checking operation isexecuted by the process of authenticating the storefront gateway, theprocess of the SSL mutual authentication, and so on. After thestorefront gateway 220 is authenticated, the proof of purchase (POP) iscreated by the proof of purchase creation means 101 of the licensedistribution management means 100. At the same time, the history ofcreating the proof of purchase is recorded by the proof of purchasecreation means 101, and this history of creating the proof of purchaseis recorded in the proof of purchase creation history storing means 120.Then, proof of purchase thus created is sent to the storefront gateway220. Further, the proof of purchase group (POP group) is sent when twoor more proof of purchases are created.

In the storefront gateway 220 which has received the proof of purchase,the box set which has grouped plural eBoxes as one set is created so asto be stored and maintained in the box set file management means 222, aswell as each eBox of each proof of purchase is created in the box setcreation means 224. The box set ID is attached to this box set. Further,the foregoing box set ID is attached to the extension of the box setfile name, as well as the contents of the box set are recorded in therelevant box set file. Then, the storefront gateway 220 sends a responseinforming that the box set manual issuance was performed to the CS callcenter.

Next, the CS call center sends a revoke request to the licensedistribution management means 100. The proof of purchase ID and amessage of the reason for a revoke are attached to this revoke request.When the license distribution management means 100 receives theforegoing revoke request, the proof of purchase revoke response is sentback to the CS call center after the relevant proof of purchase ID and amessage of the reason for a revoke are recorded in the revoke proof ofpurchase table. The CS call center sent back a message that correctedcommodities are prepared (i.e. re-issuance preparation) to the clientterminal 300 using an electric mail based on this proof of purchaserevoke response.

If the client terminal 300 receives a response in which re-issuance fromthe foregoing CS call center is prepared, the member login is requestedfrom the web browser 302 to the storefront server 200. The member ID anda password are attached to this member login request. On the side of thestorefront server 200, the member ID and the password are received, aswell as the client request receiving means 211 of the storefront windowterminal 210 receives the foregoing login request. Next, the storefrontwindow terminal 210 sends the screen for the member and cookieinformation to the web browser 302. Then, the web browser 302 makes apurchase history request to the storefront window terminal 210.Accordingly, the storefront window terminal 210 acquires the settlementID and the settlement history within past 48 hours and makes a requestof the box set file ID to the storefront gateway 220. The member ID isattached to this request of the box set file ID. The storefront gateway220 acquires the box set file under the member ID directory designatedby the foregoing member ID, and sends a box set file ID group to thestorefront window terminal 210. The storefront window terminal 210matches the settlement history with the box set file ID so as to createbrowsing HTML. If the settlement history cannot be found for thesettlement ID of the box set file ID in the stage of creating thisbrowsing HTML, HTML including the relevant box file ID is created byrecording “-” in history information. Then, the storefront windowterminal 210 sends a purchase history list (a file ID group) recordingthe box set which has not yet been acquired to the web browser 302 ofthe client terminal 300.

The user of the client terminal 300 finds out the box set of thecorrected commodity by checking a recording mark of “-” in thesettlement history, and designates the box set so as to acquire it.Then, the box set request is sent to the storefront window terminal 210from the web browser 302. The box set file ID is attached to this boxset request. The member ID is included in this box set file. Thestorefront window terminal 210 sends the foregoing box set request tothe storefront gateway 220. The box set file ID as data is attached tothe box set request. In the event that the storefront gateway 220receives the foregoing box set request, the storefront gateway 220extracts the relevant box set from the box set file management means 222based on the box set file ID so as to send it to the box set provisionmeans 226 and the box set provision means 226 sends this box set to thestorefront window terminal 210.

If the storefront window terminal 210 receives the box set, thestorefront window terminal 210 sends the box set to the web browser 302of the client terminal 300 from the purchase request answering means213. If the web browser 302 receives the box set, the web browser 302activates the bookshelf management means 301 with the MIME type of thebox set and stores the box set so as to bookshelf-manage the box set,and further the notice of receiving the box set is sent to thestorefront server 200 from the bookshelf management means 301. The boxset header is stored in this box set receiving notice. The foregoing boxset receiving notice is to confirm that the client terminal 300 hasreceived the box set from the storefront server 200. This box setreceiving notice is sent to the storefront gateway 220 from the purchaserequest answering means 213 of the storefront window terminal 210. Thebox set header is attached if the box set receiving telecommunication isperformed.

If the storefront gateway 220 receives the box set, the storefrontgateway 220 checks to confirm whether or not the box set header isinterpolated. If there is no interpolation, the relevant box set file isdeleted from the box set file management means 222. At this stage, ifthe directory for the member ID becomes empty since the box set file isdeleted, the member directory itself is deleted. Accordingly,unnecessary data is not left in a limited memory region for a long time,thus the memory can be used effectively. After the foregoing processes,the response of receiving the box set is sent to the storefront windowterminal 210 from the storefront gateway 220, and further this responseof receiving the box set is sent to the bookshelf management means 301of the client terminal 300 from the storefront window terminal 210.

Then, if the client terminal 300 wants to acquire the license or thecontents, the bookshelf management means 301 disassembles the box setinto each box, that is to say, each eBox so as to display the contentsof the eBox in GUI in a browsing way.

On the side of the client terminal 300, to begin with, the operation ofdownloading the contents is executed based on the browsing display ofthe foregoing GUI. Thus, if the user designates a downloading object ina list displayed in the display means 304, the bookshelf managementmeans 301 acquires the URL for downloading the contents from the proofof purchase of the designated eBox and sends the contents request to thecontents distribution server 400.

Upon receiving the foregoing contents request, the contents distributionserver 400 sends the digital contents as an object to the clientterminal 300. Accordingly, the contents designated on the side of theclient terminal 300 are distributed to the relevant client terminal 300,thus the client terminal 300 can acquire the contents without anymissing page and/or erratic pagination, or the contents embedding viewerprogram without any bug. On the side of the client terminal 300, thedistributed contents are stored in the bookshelf management means 301.At this point, the distributed contents are structured by the encrypteddigital contents.

Next, the client terminal 300 acquires the license distributionmanagement URL from the proof of purchase of the designated eBox, andsends the license request to the license distribution management means100. This license requests the issuance of the license itselfcorresponding to the foregoing distributed content to the licensedistribution management means 100 from the client terminal 300, and is adifferent operation process from the foregoing license purchase request.The designated eBox proof of purchase is attached to this licenserequest.

Upon receiving the foregoing license, the license distributionmanagement means 100 checks to confirm whether or not the proof ofpurchase attached to the license request from the bookshelf managementmeans 301 is interpolated. If the license request is not interpolated,it is checked to confirm whether or not the record of creating therelevant proof of purchase is found in its proof of purchase creationhistory storing means 120. Then, if the record of creating the relevantproof of purchase is found, the license creation means 102 deletes therelevant proof of purchase creation history of the proof of purchasecreation history storing means 120, as well as the license creationmeans 102 creates the license designated by its proof of purchase. Then,the created license is sent to the license provision means 103 and thensent to the client terminal 300 from the license provision means 103.Accordingly, the license for the proof of purchase designated on theside of the client terminal 300 is issued. On the side of the clientterminal 300, thus issued license is stored in the bookshelf managementmeans 301.

In this way, the processes of receiving the contents distributionfirstly and the license distribution secondly are executed, therelationship between thus distributed license and contents is the sameas the foregoing sixth embodiment, and thus the explanation thereto isomitted herein.

In the foregoing explanation, to begin with, the bookshelf managementmeans 301 acquires the contents from the contents distribution server400, and then the license is acquired from the license distributionmanagement means 100. However, in a series of these operations, thebookshelf management means 301 makes a copy of the data of the LCconnector 11 data recorded in the relevant license in the area of the LCconnector of the contents after the license is acquired. Accordingly,the state in which the same LC connectors 11 are recorded in thecontents and the license stored in the bookshelf management means 301 isattained. Thus, the relationship between them becomes clear. At thispoint, in the bookshelf management means 301, each of the content 14 andthe license 10 is stored in each separate file, and each file name isgiven to each file. In this embodiment, the LC connector is used in eachfile name of each file, and both files are classified by having eachdifferent extension in each LC connector. As each file name of eachfile, in the same way as the case of the foregoing sixth embodiment, thefollowing files are given:

License file: [LC connector].LCS

Contents file: [LC connector].CTT

If these types of file names are given, the LC connectors 11 areincluded in the file names, the relationship between the license and thecontents can be identified from their file names. Further, the LCconnector is included in the contents of each file, thus the operationof identifying the relationship between the contents and the license canbe executed doubly.

Further, in the bookshelf management means 301, as indicated in FIG. 33,the fact that the license 10 and the content 14 are prepared isindicated using a browsing list by displaying the icon in the displaymeans 304.

By displaying the foregoing browsing list, in the bookshelf managementmeans 301, the predetermined contents can be written in the exteriormemory medium (or including auxiliary memory means and/or a memorymedium such as a portable terminal fro reproducing the content 14) suchas the memory card 307. In this case, if the user designates the content14 (attaching the icon 25 in FIG. 33) which shall be written in theexterior memory medium and the like, the relevant license 10 isdesignated successively. If a writing indication is input from the datainput means 303, this indication command is sent to the bookshelfmanagement means 301 from the control means 305, and the designatedcontent 14 and the relevant license 10 are written and stored in thememory card 307.

Accordingly, if the contents of the electronic book have incorrectcollating or a missing page, the viewer program has a bug, and thecontents of the book cannot be displayed correctly, the controllingoperation of providing the license contents once again can be performedwithout any trouble.

Further, as explained in the sixth embodiment, since the viewer program15 is included in the content 14, if the controlling process ofproviding the content 14 once again is executed in the eighthembodiment, the application is provided for displaying the contents onceagain while the content 14 is sent, even if the content 14 is incorrectand the viewer program 15 cannot run correctly. Therefore, the user canbe released from the obligatory operation of updating separately thecontent 14 and the viewer program 15, and immediately browse the book byreceiving a new book once again.

Although the present invention is explained based on the preferredembodiments with reference to figures, it is obvious for those havingordinal skill in the art to make easily various changes, omissions, andadditions without departing the spirit and scope of the idea of thepresent invention. It is apparent that the present invention includessuch modification.

1. A license distribution method, comprising the steps of: receiving apurchase request of a license for viewing digital contents via anetwork; executing a process of settling accounts for the purchaserequest of a license after receiving the purchase request of a license;creating a proof of purchase corresponding to said purchase request of alicense after a process of settling accounts is finished; sending thecreated proof of purchase to a purchase requester of a license; andcreating a license in response to a license request including said proofof purchase so as to send it to a purchase requester of a license. 2.The license distribution method according to claim 1, further comprisingthe steps of: creating, after completing the process of settlingaccounts, a box set file of recording a history of the proof of purchaseup to issuance from creation; and adding a file ID and an ID of settlingsaid accounts to the created box file.
 3. The license distributionmethod according to claim 2, further comprising the steps of: creating aproof of purchase corresponding to said license request after creatingsaid box set file; and creating a box set by grouping created proofs ofpurchase and changing the file ID of said box set file based on thecreated box set.
 4. The license distribution method according to claim3, further comprising the steps of: sending the ID of said box set fileto the purchase requester of a license while keeping the box set filetemporarily; receiving a box set request from the purchase requester ofa license via a network; and sending a box set corresponding to said boxset request to the purchase requester of a license after receiving saidbox set request.
 5. The license distribution method according to claim4, further comprising the step of: deleting a relevant box set fileafter receiving a box set receiving notice from the purchase requesterof a license via a network.
 6. The license distribution method accordingto claim 1, wherein telecommunication for said license request/receivingis terminated if accounts are not settled.
 7. The license distributionmethod according to claim 1, wherein a refund process is executed if noresponse is returned from a task of creating and sending said proof ofpurchase after said process of settling accounts.
 8. The licensedistribution method according to claim 1, wherein a list of unacquiredproofs of purchase is sent and the unacquired proofs of purchase areissued once again if no response is returned from a task of creating andsending a proof of purchase after said process of settling accounts. 9.A license distribution method, comprising the steps of: receiving apurchase request of a license for viewing digital contents via anetwork; executing a process of settling accounts for the purchaserequest of a license after receiving the purchase request of a license;creating, after completing the process of settling accounts, a box setfile of recording history of the proof of purchase up to issuance fromcreation and adding a file ID and an ID of settling said accounts to thecreated box file; creating a proof of purchase corresponding to saidpurchase request of a license after said box set file is created;changing the file ID of said box file based on the created proof ofpurchase; sending said proof of purchase to a requester of purchasinglicense; deleting a relevant box set file after receiving a proof ofpurchase receiving notice from the purchase requester of a license viathe network; and creating a relevant license responding to a licenserequest including said proof of purchase and sending it to the purchaserequester of a license.
 10. A license distribution system, comprising: aclient terminal for outputting a purchase request of a license and alicense request; a storefront server for receiving the purchase requestof a license for viewing digital contents via a network from the clientterminal; and license distribution management means for creating a proofof purchase corresponding to said purchase request of a license, whereinsaid storefront server includes a reception window terminal forreceiving said purchase request of a license and a management terminalfor executing a process necessary for issuing the license, saidstorefront server receives the purchase request of a license for viewingdigital contents via the network from the client terminal in thereception window terminal, said storefront server executes a process ofsettling accounts for the purchase request of a license after receivingthe purchase request of a license, the license distribution managementmeans creates a proof of purchase corresponding to said purchase requestof a license after completing the process of settling accounts, thelicense distribution management means sends the created proof ofpurchase to the client terminal via the storefront server from saidlicense distribution management means, and said license distributionmanagement means creates, when the client terminal sends a licenserequest including said proof of purchase, a relevant license and sendsthe license to the client terminal that made the license request. 11.The license distribution system according to claim 10, wherein themanagement terminal of the storefront server creates a box set file forrecording a history of said proof of purchase up to issuance fromcreation after completing the process of settling accounts.
 12. Thelicense distribution system according to claim 11, wherein said licensedistribution management means creates a proof of purchase correspondingto said license request after the management terminal of the storefrontserver creates said box set file.
 13. The license distribution systemaccording to claim 12, wherein said management terminal of saidstorefront server creates a box set by grouping created proofs ofpurchase and changing a file ID of said box set file based on said boxset.
 14. The license distribution system according to claim 13, whereinthe management terminal of the storefront server sends said box set fileID to a client terminal while keeping a box set temporarily, the clientterminal sends a box set request to the storefront server based on thereceived box set file ID, the management terminal of the storefrontserver sends a box set corresponding to said box set request to theclient terminal after receiving said box set request.
 15. The licensedistribution system according to claim 14, wherein the managementterminal of the storefront server sends said box set to the clientterminal and deletes a relevant box set file after receiving a box setreceiving notice from the client terminal via a network.
 16. A licensedistribution method, comprising the steps of: receiving a purchaserequest of a license for viewing digital contents sold via a network asa subscription commodity or a package commodity grouping pluralcommodities; executing a process of settling accounts for the purchaserequest of a license after receiving the purchase request of a license;creating a pBox proof of purchase as a proof of purchase correspondingto a subscription commodity or a package commodity as an object of saidpurchase request of a license after the process of settling accounts iscompleted; sending the created pBox proof of purchase to a purchaserequester of a license; creating a relevant eBox proof of purchase andsending it to the purchase requester of a license by responding to aneBox request as a proof of purchase corresponding to a license commodityhaving respective items including said pBox proof of purchase; andcreating a relevant license in response to a license request includingsaid eBox proof of purchase and sending it to the purchase requester ofa license.
 17. The license distribution method according to claim 16,wherein a commodity is managed by linking the subscription commodity orthe package commodity with its relevant license commodity.
 18. Thelicense distribution method according to claim 17, wherein an MPID whichis a common identifier as a connector of management-linking thesubscription commodity or the package commodity with the relevantlicense commodity is given to the both commodities.
 19. The licensedistribution method according to claim 18, wherein an eBox proof ofpurchase can be created based on a pBox proof of purchase and acommodity as an object of the eBox proof of purchase by a linkmanagement means having an MPID connector is searched for and acquiredin the process.
 20. The license distribution method according to claim19, wherein plural MPIDs being different to each other can be attachedto license commodities.
 21. The license distribution method according toclaim 20, wherein the license commodities to which the plural MPIDs areattached can be included in plural groups of subscription commodities orpackaging commodities being different to each other.
 22. The licensedistribution method according to claim 16, wherein eBox/pBox type datais included in a proof of purchase to discriminate whether the proof ofpurchase is for the subscription commodity or the package commodity. 23.The license distribution method according to claim 16, wherein a proofof purchase creation history is recorded and purchase creation of theproof of process is monitored in creating a proof of purchase.
 24. Thelicense distribution method according to claim 19, wherein, when theeBox purchase proof is created based on the pBox purchase proof, a proofof purchase creation history is recorded, and a pBox proof of purchaseID as a parent is recorded in the proof of purchase creation history ofthe created pBox proof of purchase.
 25. The license distribution methodaccording to claim 16, wherein a box set file for a recording history ofthe proof of purchase up to issuance from creation is created aftercompleting the process of settling accounts and the created box set fileincludes a step of attaching a file ID and an ID of said settlement. 26.The license distribution method according to claim 25, furthercomprising the steps of: sending said box set file ID to a purchaserequester of a license while keeping a pBox box set temporarily;receiving a box set file request from the purchase requester of alicense via a network; and sending a box set corresponding to said boxset request to the purchase requester of a license after receiving saidbox set request.
 27. The license distribution method according to claim16, wherein a request of a proof of purchase is received again and anunacquired proof of purchase is issued again if a response to a task ofcreating and sending a proof of purchase is not received after saidprocess of settling accounts is completed.
 28. A license distributionsystem, comprising: a client terminal for outputting a purchase requestof a license and a license request; a storefront server for receivingthe purchase request of a license for viewing digital contents via anetwork from the client terminal; and license distribution managementmeans for creating a proof of purchase corresponding to said purchaserequest of a license, wherein said storefront server includes areception window terminal for receiving said purchase request of alicense and a management terminal for executing a process necessary forissuing the license, said license distribution management meansincludes: commodity management means for managing commodities by linkinga subscription commodity or a package commodity with a relevant licensecommodity; proof of purchase creation means for creating a pBox proof ofpurchase corresponding to the subscription commodity or packagecommodity as an object of said purchase request of a license; and proofof purchase creation means for creating a relevant eBox proof ofpurchase in response to an eBox request corresponding to a licensecommodity having respective items including said pBox proof of purchase,and said storefront server includes the steps of: receiving a purchaserequest of a license for viewing digital contents sold as thesubscription commodity or package commodity by grouping pluralcommodities via a network from the client terminal at the receptionwindow terminal; executing a process of settling accounts for thepurchase request of a license after receiving the purchase request of alicense; creating a pBox proof of purchase corresponding to thesubscription commodity or package commodity as an object of licensepurchase after the process of settling accounts is completed; sendingthe created pBox proof of purchase to the client terminal from thelicense distribution management means via the storefront server; sendinga relevant eBox proof of purchase created by the license distributionmanagement means to said client terminal when the client terminal sendsan eBox request corresponding to a license commodity having respectiveitems including said pBox proof of purchase; and sending a licensecreated by said license distribution management means to the clientterminal requesting the license when the client terminal sends a licenserequest including said eBox proof of purchase.
 29. The licensedistribution system according to claim 28, wherein said commoditymanagement means manages a commodity by giving an MPID which is a commonidentifier as a connector of management-linking the subscriptioncommodity or the package commodity with a relevant license commodity tothe both commodities.
 30. The license distribution system according toclaim 28, wherein the management terminal of the storefront servercreates a box set file for recording a history of a proof of purchase upto issuance from creation after the process of settling accounts iscompleted.
 31. The license distribution system according to claim 30,wherein said license distribution management means creates a proof ofpurchase corresponding to said license request after the managementterminal of the storefront server creates said box file.
 32. The licensedistribution system according to claim 31, wherein the managementterminal of the storefront server sends said box set file ID to a clientterminal while keeping a box set temporarily, the client terminal sendsa box set request to the storefront server based on the received box setfile ID; and the management terminal of the storefront server sends abox set corresponding to said box set request to the client terminalafter receiving said box set request.
 33. A license and contentsprovision method, comprising the steps of: receiving a purchase requestof a license for viewing digital contents via a network; executing aprocess of settling accounts for the purchase request of a license afterreceiving the purchase request of a license; creating a proof ofpurchase corresponding to said purchase request of a license after aprocess of settling accounts is completed; sending the created proof ofpurchase to a purchase requester of a license; distributing contents inresponse to a contents request from a client side; and creating arelevant license in response to a license request including said proofof purchase by attaching license contents linking data indicatinglinkage with said distributing contents and sending it to a client. 34.The license and contents provision method according to claim 33, furthercomprising the step of: making a copy of the license contents linkingdata attached to a license in a predetermined data region of contents bya client after the license is sent to the client.
 35. The license andcontents provision method according to claim 34, wherein the license andcontents having the license contents linking data are stored in separatefiles of a client.
 36. The license and contents provision methodaccording to claim 35, wherein the license and contents stored in theseparate files of the client are, for their respective files, given filenames using the license contents linking data.
 37. The license andcontents provision method according to claim 33, wherein networktelecommunication for requesting and/or receiving said license isterminated if the process of settling accounts is not executed.
 38. Thelicense and contents provision method according to claim 33, whereinsaid contents includes a viewer program.
 39. The license and contentsprovision method according to claim 33, wherein, if contents areincorrect after said license and contents are provided, a process ofproviding a license and contents again is executed.
 40. The license andcontents provision method according to claim 39, wherein a revoke checkprocess is executed based on a proof of purchase ID when a process ofproviding a license and contents again is executed.
 41. A license andcontents provision system, comprising: a client terminal for outputtinga purchase request of a license and a license request; a storefrontserver for receiving the purchase request of a license for viewingdigital contents via a network from the client terminal; and licensedistribution management means for creating a proof of purchasecorresponding to said purchase request of a license, wherein saidstorefront server includes a reception window terminal for receivingsaid purchase request of a license and a management terminal forexecuting a process necessary for issuing the license, said storefrontserver receives the purchase request of a license for viewing digitalcontents via the network from the client terminal in the receptionwindow terminal, said storefront server executes a process of settlingaccounts for the purchase request of a license after receiving thepurchase request of a license, the license distribution management meanscreates a proof of purchase corresponding to said purchase request of alicense after completing the process of settling accounts, the licensedistribution management means sends the created proof of purchase to theclient terminal via the storefront server from said license distributionmanagement means, a contents distribution server distributes relevantcontents when the client terminal sends a contents request, and thelicense distribution management means creates a relevant license byattaching license contents linking data indicating linkage with saiddistributing contents and sends it to the client terminal of requestingthe license when the client terminal sends a license request includingsaid proof of purchase.
 42. The license and contents provision systemaccording to claim 41, wherein the client terminal which received thelicense makes a copy of the license contents linking data attached tothe license in a predetermined data region of contents.
 43. Anelectronic book display terminal comprising: bookshelf management meansfor managing data after receiving it from a memory medium storingcontents of an electronic book and a license for browsing the contents;electric power management means for managing an ON/OFF switchingoperation of a main electric power; input means for inputting variousindications; time means for timekeeping the current time; usage limitcheck means for checking a limit of using a license; display means fordisplaying data; and control means for controlling an operation of afunction unit of a storing unit, wherein said control means shifts to awaiting state by making the electric power management means turn OFF themain electric power immediately when said display means displays aresult display according to an instruction from said input means. 44.The electronic book display terminal according to claim 43, whereindesignation of a book to be browsed, an instruction of turning pages,and an operation instruction of a bookshelf is input from said inputmeans.
 45. The electronic book display terminal according to claim 43,wherein said usage limit check means checks to confirm whether browsingis permitted by checking contents of a license based on present timedata acquired by the time means.
 46. The electronic book displayterminal according to claim 43, wherein said electric power managementmeans includes a sub-CPU and monitors presence of an input forinstructing a start operation while keeping a state in which the mainelectric power is turned OFF.